AL SACE -LORRAINE
Statute
George Philip & Son L 1 !
8
Thf- Zondan- Geographical. Instjtiu*
THE TRUE STORY OF
ALSACE - LORRAINE
BY
ERNEST ALFRED VIZETELLY
(LE PETIT HOMME ROUGE)
WITH A MAP
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
A MES AMIS DE FRANCE
1870-1918
POST TENEBRAS SPEEO LUOEM
E. A. V.
TWENTY CENTURIES AGO
" Right and wrong being confounded, many are the
wars and many the instances of wickedness throughout
the world. Unpaid is the honour due to the plough,
forsaken lie the fields, their husbandmen have been taken
away, and the curved sickle is forged into the unbending
sword. Strife is roused on one side by Euphrates, on the
other by Germany. Neighbouring communities, having
broken their treaties, bear arms one against the other,
and Mars, to whom nothing is sacred, rages over all the
world."
VIRGIL, Georgics, Bk. I
PREFACE
THE idea of writing this book occurred to me when I found,
both by conversing with friends and acquaintances and by
listening at odd moments to remarks passed by " men in
the street," how very little is known about Alsace-Lorraine
in Great Britain. The general ignorance appeared to me to
be the more regrettable as my acquaintance with all the more
important German utterances and writings on this subject
since 1871 convinced me, already at the outset of the Great
War, that whatever conditions the Allies might resolve to
exact of Germany, the one which, more than any other, she
would resist to her utmost would be the restitution of Alsace-
Lorraine to France. Nevertheless, it was absurd for Baron
von Klihlmann to assert, as he did shortly after his appoint-
ment as German Minister for Foreign Affairs, that the sole
obstacle to peace was the question of Alsace-Lorraine. As
our Foreign Secretary, Mr. Balfour, replied virtually re-
peating the utterances of our successive Prime Ministers,
Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd George we undoubtedly desire
to see Alsace-Lorraine restored to France ; but it is ridiculous
to imagine that this one question " stands out solitary, pre-
eminent, unconnected with any other of the objects of the
war." " We are fighting," as Mr. Balfour said, " in order, in
the first place, that Europe may be freed from the perpetual
menace of the military party in Germany " ; and, assuredly,
if that object is to be attained, questions affecting quite a
number of countries will require solution.
It is true that at one moment certain doubts arose in
France as to how far her Allies might be with her in her
legitimate desire to recover the territory lost in 1871 ; but,
assuredly, those doubts have been dispelled by the important
pronouncements which have emanated from Mr. Lloyd George
vii
viii PREFACE
and President Wilson of the United States whilst this volume
has been passing through the press. France, it may be
pointed out, claims the unconditional restoration of the lands
wrenched from her by Germany ; but in Great Britain and
elsewhere there has been considerable talk of consulting the
present inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine by means of a ple-
biscitum. Quitting, for a moment, the lofty standpoint of
our French friends, and taking an independent and, I trust,
practical view of the matter, I have discussed this question
of a plebiscitum in the concluding chapter of the present
volume. As the reader will find, the conclusion at which
I have arrived is that, owing to the changes which have
occurred since 1871, a genuine plebiscitum is impossible.
Thus, even from a lower standpoint than that of the French
government, unconditional restoration seems to me to be
imperative.
In the course of my work I have sketched the history of
Alsace and Lorraine down to the time of the Great War.
Some readers may think that I have given too much space
to ancient history, but I have dealt with it at some length
precisely because it is largely on ancient history that the
Germans have based their claims to the territory annexed by
them. For a similar reason I have touched on racial and
linguistic questions, on which, indeed, I might have said a
great deal more had I wished to produce a scientific treatise.
What I have written respecting these matters will, I think,
suffice to give the reader an adequate idea of the rival con-
tentions of the Germans and the French.
In the historical part of my narrative I have made no
attempt to conceal the fact that at the time of the Old
Regime in France the government of Alsace and Lorraine
was often very bad. But the reader must remember that
bad government then prevailed throughout the kingdom,
and was in no wise peculiar to the eastern provinces. That
widespread misrule was, indeed, the raison d'etre of the
Great Revolution. But whatever occurred during the last
century of the old monarchy's existence, the attachment of
the Alsatians and the Lorrainers to France itself remained
as steadfast as that of the folk of Picardy, Burgundy, Gascony
or any other part of the country, and was exemplified in the
PREFACE ix
most striking manner throughout the wars both of the
Revolution and of the First and also the Second Empire.
I may add that at an early stage in the present gigantic
struggle, though more than forty years had elapsed since the
severance of 1871, it was officially estimated that 30,000
Alsatians were already serving with the French colours and
that a score of French general officers were connected by
parentage with the lost territory.
With respect to the union of Strasburg with France at the
time of Louis XIV, I would direct the reader's attention to
the historic document of which I give a verbatim translation
in the Appendices to this volume. This document shows how
the magistrates of the Alsatian capital, before accepting
French sovereignty, laid down a number of specific conditions,
nearly all of which were immediately accepted by the Marquis
de Louvois on behalf of Louis XIV. The convention which
was entered into thoroughly disproves the often-repeated
German assertions respecting the " forcible seizure " of
Strasburg in 1681. Elsewhere in my pages, I also relate
how the little Republic of Mulhouse elected to become a part
of the Republic of France. Further, I have touched on the
appropriation of parts of the Sarre valley by Prussia and
Bavaria in 1815, the districts in question having previously
pertained to Alsace and Lorraine. Certain French aspirations
with respect to those districts have been construed by some
ignorant British politicians as signifying on the part of France
a resolve to annex a great stretch of absolutely German
territory. I can in no wise claim to speak for France on
such a matter, but I take it that, even if some slight recti-
fication of frontier in the Sarre valley should for security's
sake appear advisable, the Republic's one essential claim is
the restoration of the territory torn from her by Bismarck
at the end of the Franco-German War.
In the map serving as a frontispiece to this volume the
names of localities are given in the German forms which have
been current during the last forty-seven years. Many
localities never had German names before 1871. Throughout
my narrative I have generally used the French ones, which
are more familiar to me, and I have therefore appended to
my work two alphabetical lists, which, in cases of doubt, will
x PREFACE
help the reader to identify a number of places. With respect
to the Alsatian capital I have used neither the French
spelling of its name Strasbourg nor the German spelling
Strassburg but have adhered to the old English practice
of writing Strasburg, just as we write Brussels instead of
Bruxelles, Florence instead of Firenze, and Vienna instead of
Wien.
E. A. V.
LONDON, January 1918
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY : CHARACTERISTICS AND RESOURCES
OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 1
II. CITIES, TOWNS, AND NOTED SPOTS 25
III. ALSATIAN HISTORY TO THE TREATY OF
WESTPHALIA 55
IV. ALSATIAN HISTORY TO THE WAR OF 1870 91
V. THE STORY OF LORRAINE TO THE LAST NATIVE
DUKES 142
VI. THE STORY OF LORRAINE FROM THE TIME OF
STANISLAS TO 1870 172
VII. ALSATIANS AND LORRAINERS 198
VIII. THE WAR OF 1870-71 228
IX. UNDER GERMAN RULE 267
APPENDICES
A. PLACE-NAMES DIFFERING IN FRENCH AND GERMAN 293
B. STRASBURG UNITED TO FRANCE 297
INDEX 301
xi
"We mean to stand by the French democracy to the
death in the demand they make for a reconsideration of
the great wrong of 1871, when, without any regard to the
wishes of the population, two French provinces were torn
from the side of France and incorporated in the German
Empire. This sore has poisoned the peace of Europe for
half a century, and, until it is cured, healthy conditions
will not have been restored."
MR. LLOYD GEORGE to the delegates of the Trade
Unions, January 5, 1918.
" All French territory should be freed, and the invaded
portions restored, and the wrong done to France by
Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which
has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years,
should be righted, in order that peace may once more be
made secure in the interest of all."
PRESIDENT WDLSON to Congress, January 8, 1918
INTRODUCTORY : CHARACTERISTICS AND
RESOURCES OF ALSACE-LORRAINE
Territories and Nationalities : Napoleon III and the Principle of
Nationalities : Great Britain's Position in 1870 : Bismarck, Napoleon,
and Belgium : Gladstone's Championship of Belgium : The special
Treaty guaranteeing Belgian Independence : Why Britain did not
support France in 1870-71 : The Cession of Alsace-Lorraine to
Germany : Configuration, Characteristics, and Resources of the
annexed Territory : Its Extent and its Frontiers : Its chief Water-
ways : Its many Railways : The Mountainous Zone of the Vosges :
Chief Mountains and Forest-lands : The Zone of the Slopes : Orchards,
Vineyards, and Wines : The Zone of the Plain : Characteristics of
Lorraine : Chief Crops of the Reichsland : Beer : Live Stock : Salt,
Coal, and Iron : Sundry Manufactures : The Alsatian Cotton Industry :
Other Textiles.
SMALL States or communities have generally found it
difficult, if not impossible, to prevent the encroach-
ments of powerful neighbours. History has again
and again exemplified the truth of the saying that
they shall take who have the power and they shall
keep who can. Broadly speaking, it was only in the
nineteenth century that the principle of the inde-
pendence of individual nationalities made any head-
way, and that mainly as a matter of theory, not one
of practice. The twentieth century, however, has set
itself the task, or, perhaps one ought to say, the task
has been imposed upon it, of settling territorial ques-
tions according to the desires of the different popula-
tions. Real national unity has always been a plant of
slow growth. Monarchs have repeatedly combined
several States under their sway, but without achieving
2 THE TRUE STORY OF
homogeneity. Perhaps we in England were the first
in Europe to attain to something of the kind in spite
of the many diverse elements of our population. The
English part of our island became, broadly speaking,
united long before France had developed into any-
thing like the State that she is to-day.
Joan of Arc did not merely drive us from France,
she laid (in my opinion) the first foundations of
French unity and patriotism. In her time, however,
even when we had been constrained to abandon our
conquests, " the gentle King " whom she led to
Reims to be crowned and anointed in that city's then
splendid fane, only exercised direct sway over a
portion of the land which now constitutes the French
State. The royal dominions were built up by slow
degrees, either before Joan's time or afterwards, and
largely with the help of matrimonial alliances, but
sometimes also by conquest and cession, until at last
Brittany, Burgundy, Normandy, Dauphine*, Gascony,
Provence, Poitou, Languedoc, Auvergne, Navarre,
Foix, Picardy, Artois, French Flanders, Lorraine,
Alsace, and other provinces all at one time indepen-
dent or quasi-independent States became part and
parcel of the Kingdom of France. All that was the
work of centuries, whereas in our island, after the
subjugation of Wales, there remained but two rulers,
two crowns, those of England and Scotland.
On the other hand, Germany, down even to our
own times, remained a conglomeration of many
States, often in conflict one with another and having
different ambitions, different outlooks upon life.
Spain, although its crowns were united by Ferdinand
and Isabella, would seem, in spite of political entity,
to have resisted all attempts to weld its people
properly together. There are still more points, of
ALSACE-LORRAINE 3
difference between, for instance, the Catalan, the
Castillian, and the Andalusian, than between the
Northumbrian and the man of Wessex, or between
the Picard and the French southerner. Italy, we
know, remained for long centuries a land of inter-
necine conflict under the oppressive sway of foreign
or native tyrants. Austria, peopled by hostile races,
has never been much more than a geographical
expression, and although held together until our
period by stern personal rule, seems fated, at some
time or other, to fall to pieces. We English, however,
with our friends the Scots and the Welsh, and, one
may add, at least a very large proportion of the Irish,
have become to all intents and purposes one com-
munity, and although the stress of twentieth-century
life may demand certain devolutions of authority,
there can be no real question of sundering us one from
another.
During the nineteenth century the foremost cham-
pion of the principle of nationalities was the French
Emperor Napoleon III. In certain respects he de-
serves to be judged severely, and I do not desire to
withdraw or to qualify anything which I have written
about him in former volumes of mine, but it must be
put to his credit that he freed at least a part of Italy
from Austrian tyranny, that he desired to free the
Poles when they attempted their last great rising
against the Russian autocracy, and that he also
wished to intervene on behalf of Denmark against
Prussia and Austria. But in regard neither to the
Danes nor to the Poles could he obtain any effective
support from the British Government.
Our rulers were unwilling to embark on any policy
that suggested adventure. During the earlier sixties
Great Britain, in the heyday of the Free Trade policy,
4 THE TRUE STORY OF
was waxing richer and richer. Her middle classes
were growing fat, sleek, smug, and egotistical. More-
over, the German sympathies of the sovereign were
notorious. Although, by reason of her sex, Queen
Victoria could not reign in Hanover, she had inherited
Hanoverian traditions, and was influenced far too
much by her German family-connexions and interests.
Our present generation is now harvesting the bitter
fruit of some of the tendencies, prejudices, and
mistakes of her reign.
A short time after the Franco-German War of
1870-71 the late Lord Kitchener, then quite a young
man, remarked to a friend that if only 10,000 British
troops had been landed in Normandy, France would
not have been defeated so grievously as became the
case. Kitchener's view was that British action would
have had a powerful moral effect, and have encouraged
the other chief Powers Italy, Austria, and Russia
to intervene and stop the struggle. It is, however,
not at all unlikely that the course which Kitchener
suggested would have had a very different effect, and
have proved the signal for a general European War,
particularly as the Russian Tsar (Alexander II) was
at that period much more inclined in favour of
Germany than in favour of France.
One thing is quite certain : we were in no position
to give any really effective help to the French. In
1870 we were suffering from commercial depression.
Cotton was u up," owing to the shortage of supplies.
Trade unions were agitating. Many joint-stock enter-
prises had fallen into discredit. Agrarian crime was
rife in Ireland, where reform of the land laws was
being planned. In England the question of elemen-
tary education had come to the front. Our naval
estimates for that year voted before the war broke
ALSACE-LORRAINE 5
ou t_were lower by 1,700,000 than those of 1868-9,
and lower by 750,000 than those of 1869-70. Since
1859 never had they been so low. The staffs at
Woolwich, Sheerness, Portsmouth, etc., had all been
reduced. We had only 28 broadside ships afloat,
and we could only have mustered 40 vessels of all
categories, mounting altogether 550 guns. As it
happened, the war proved essentially a land war, and
our army estimates amounted to merely some 13
millions sterling, Cardwell, then Secretary for War,
pluming himself on the fact that he had reduced those
of the previous year by 1,136,000. Our total avail-
able forces amounted to 22 regiments of cavalry and
75 battalions of infantry, with some artillery and
engineers. It is true that the militia establishment
represented 111,000 men, and that we had 300,000
breech-loaders in store. There was also the Volunteer
Force, but virtually the whole of our military organiza-
tion was in the melting-pot, the abolition of the
purchase of commissions and other reforms devised
by Cardwell being in progress. Briefly, when war
broke out between France and Germany in July 1870
we were even less ready for participation in a European
conflict than we were when the present war began in /
August 1914.
At the outset it seemed that if we should side with
either belligerent it would be with Germany rather
than with France ; and curiously enough this will
show that history does repeat itself it was the
question of Belgium which led our statesmen to take
that view. Both Gladstone and Disraeli were in
agreement on the subject, which came to the front
owing to Bismarck's statements that Napoleon III
had been hankering for the possession of Belgium ever
since 1862. The truth appears to be that when the
6 TH*E TRUE STORY OP
German statesman prevailed on the French Emperor
to remain neutral in the conflict between Prussia and
Austria in 1866 he hinted that France might, with
Prussia's assent, even assistance, find compensation
in the direction of Belgium. Unfortunately Napo-
leon's ambassador, Benedetti, blundered badly, and
Bismarck possessed himself of a memorandum or
draft treaty on the subject which Benedetti drew up,
this document being disclosed when war broke out
in 1870.
Great Britain naturally became alarmed. States-
men of all parties demanded that the neutrality of
Belgium should be respected. On the last day of the
parliamentary session Gladstone expressed himself in
these vigorous terms :
If Belgium should be absorbed to satisfy any
greedy appetite for aggrandizement, come whence
it may, the day that witnesses that absorption will
hear the knell of public right and public law in
Europe. Can this country quietly stand by and
witness the perpetration of the direst crime staining
the pages of history, and thus become a participator
in the sin ?
Great Britain answered that question in 1914, and
is answering it still. In 1870 the King of Prussia was
more reasonable and sensible than is his grandson the
German ruler of to-day. A treaty was signed between
Great Britain, France, and Prussia, covenanting to
maintain Belgian independence and neutrality intact.
And it was stipulated that if either belligerent should
violate the treaty, Great Britain would combine with
the other to ensure observance of it. It was further
set down that this treaty should remain in force for
one year after the cessation of hostilities, after which
ALSACE-LORRAINE 7
the signatories should revert to the Quintuple Treaty
of 1839.
Thus, at a time when our naval and military
power was at its lowest, we contrived to save Belgium.
None can say, however, what might have happened
if France or Germany or both of them had refused to
listen to reason. The case against Napoleon III was
not in reality so black as Bismarck's artful diplomacy
made it appear to be, but, naturally, the affair created
no little prejudice against the French Emperor at the
outset of the Franco-German War. What ! The so-
called Champion of Nationalities was himself harbour-
ing evil designs against a small, weak, and inoffensive
nation ? It seemed monstrous ! Napoleon cannot
be held blameless in the matter. He had allowed
himself to be ensnared by Bismarck when the latter
baited him with the promise of an accession of territory
at the expense of Belgium.
All who participated in the affair carried with
them to their graves the real truth respecting the
negotiation. But, remembering Bismarck's repeated
trickery, including the falsification of the Ems tele-
gram, the conviction deepens that Benedetti's " draft
treaty " was virtually dictated by the Prussian
statesman, and that the idea of the conquest of
Belgium (in which Prussia was to have assisted
France " with all her military and naval forces ")
and the contemplated purchase of the Grand Duchy
of Luxemburg from the King of the Netherlands,
originated in the Wilhelmstrasse and not at the
Tuileries, and had as its sole object the desire to
keep France quiet whilst Prussia was prosecuting
her designs. Benedetti's error was to commit
Bismarck's suggestions to writing, and to leave that
writing with him.
8 TrfE TRUE STORY OP
Whatever the truth may have been, it is at least
certain that apart from Napoleon III and a few
members of his immediate entourage nobody in France
entertained the slightest desire to annex Belgium.
Both sides respected the treaty which they signed
with Great Britain, and although the Sedan disaster
might have been averted had Marshal MacMahon's
army crossed the Belgian frontier, this was not
attempted those French troops who, amidst the
debacle, passed into neutral territory being only
fugitives, who laid down their arms.
After the fall of the Empire, British sympathy
with France became aroused, and it increased steadily
during the seven months of resistance in which
Gambetta figured so conspicuously. Various abortive
diplomatic endeavours, in which Great Britain par-
ticipated, were made to bring about an armistice, but
no Power attempted to succour France by force of
arms. Bismarck, who was well acquainted with the
state of our military organization, laughed at the idea
of actual intervention on our part. It is a question
whether we should have been capable at that time of
a really great effort proportionate to that which we
have been making since 1914. Circumstances, more-
over, were at least on the surface very different
from those prevailing at the outset of the present war.
There was not the same incentive to participation in
a great struggle, particularly as the Belgian question
had been settled. Prussia was striding onward,
undoubtedly. For the third time in six years she
had embarked on war, but in 1870 it was not generally
imagined that she would become a perpetual menace
to the peace and the liberties of Europe. Only a few
men of foresight really apprehended the far-reaching
consequences of her triumph over France. The British
ALSACE-LORRAINE d
nation generally was opposed to participation in any
foreign entanglements. The sovereign, who then
undoubtedly exercised great influence on our foreign
policy, was, by reason of her relationships, decidedly
pro- German. Further, as I said before, young
Kitchener's suggestion of trying the moral effect of
landing a few thousand men in Normandy might
well have resulted very differently from what he
anticipated.
Thus the struggle between Germany and France
continued. Gallant, desperate, but almost vain were
the efforts of the French National Defence Govern-
ment to stem the tide of invasion. Bazaine sur-
rendered to the enemy the flower of the forces of
France, and the chief stronghold of his native Lorraine ;
the Loire armies were driven back ; Paris was con-
strained to capitulate by lack of food, and the victors
imposed upon the vanquished, not only the payment
of what then appeared to be a huge war indemnity
(200 millions sterling), but also the cession of 5600
square miles of territory, inhabited by 1,200,000
souls. That territory was turned by the Germans
into the Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine.
I propose to recount in other chapters of this
volume the earlier history of the annexed country,
the circumstances attending and immediately follow-
ing the annexation, and the chief incidents of the
German rule from 1871 to 1914. In the first place,
however, I wish to give the reader some idea of
the configuration, characteristics, and resources of the
so-called Reichsland, such as they were at the time of
the annexation, and such as they had become when
war broke out in 1914.
During French rule Alsace was divided into two
10 THE TRUE STORY OF
departments called Upper and Lower Rhine Haut-
Rhin and Bas-Rhin. Both of these departments
passed to Germany with the exception of the fortified
town of Belfort (Haut-Rhin) and an adjacent strip of
territory comprising about a hundred small communes.
Lorraine in the ninth century a kingdom stretching
from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, between
the Rhine, the Vosges, the Jura, and the Alps on the
east, and the Scheldt, the Meuse, the Saone, and the
Cevennes mountains on the west, in such wise as to
include several regions which afterwards became
known by other names had gradually dwindled in
old regime days to the status of a duchy, and its name
applied only to four departments of modern France,
those of the Meuse, the Meurthe, the Moselle, and the
Vosges. Of these the Germans of 1870-71 annexed
portions of the Moselle and the Meurthe (646 com-
munes, or from a fifth to a quarter of the former
duchy), so that the French were left in possession of
the Meuse, the Vosges (less eighteen communes cover-
ing some 50,000 acres), and fragments of the other
two departments, which they amalgamated under the
name of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
The north-western frontier, that affecting Lorraine,
was traced in a very arbitrary fashion, in order to
give the Germans possession of important strategical
positions and localities which for one or another reason
they particularly coveted. For the southern half of
the western frontier a more natural boundary that
of the Vosges Mountains was found, these heights
remaining mainly in the hands of the French, though
the Germans possessed themselves of certain important
summits, slopes, and spurs. South of Belfort, how-
ever, and as far as the Swiss frontier, an arbitrary
line was drawn across the famous Trouee or Gap,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 11
which had always been a vulnerable point of Eastern
France.
Such, then, became on the western or French side
the frontier of the Reichsland of Elsass-Lothringen,
otherwise Alsace-Lorraine. In other respects the
annexed territory retained its previous boundaries,
extending on the north to (1) the Grand Duchy of
Luxemburg, (2) that part of Rhenish Prussia which is
known as the Sarre or Saar Valley (filched from
France by Prussia in 1815), and (3) the Bavarian
Palatinate, in like way extended in that year. On
the east the boundary remained the Rhine, skirted
on the right by the Grand Duchy of Baden. On the
south the short strip of frontier facing Swiss terri-
tory remained unaltered. The Germans followed the
French system with respect to the chief administrative
divisions of their new acquisition. The former Haut-
Rhin department became Oberelsass (Upper Alsace),
the Bas-Rhin Unterelsass (Lower Alsace), whilst the
Meurthe and the Moselle lands were joined together
and called Lothringen or Lorraine. The respective
areas of the three divisions (Bezirke in German) were
as follows : Upper Alsace, 1354 square miles ; Lower
Alsace, 1848 square miles ; Lorraine, 2403 square
miles. Altogether the annexed territory is rather
more than 120 miles in length. Its least breadth, in
the south, is about 22 miles ; its greatest 105 miles, in
the north.
Bordered on the east by the Rhine, Alsace, or
rather most of it, is traversed by that river's tributary
the 111, from which it is supposed by certain writers
to have derived its name, some decomposing the
latter as follows : Ell or Ele = 111 ; sass = inhabi-
tants ; these two forming the word Elsass. Others
trace the name back to Alsa, which was applied to the
12 THE TRUE STORY OP
111 in certain Latin documents of the tenth century.
In the seventh-century Merovingian chronicle ascribed
to Fredegarius the Scholastic, the land is for the first
time called Alesatia, and its inhabitants are referred
to as Alesaciones. In the eighth century one finds
the names Elisacia and Alsazas ; in the ninth, Elsazo
and Elisazo are occasionally met with ; in the thir-
teenth one comes upon Elsaz, equivalent to the
modern German Elsass, whilst three hundred years
later a variant, Edelsaz, appears. Briefly, the etymo-
logy of the name is obscure, but it may well have been
derived from the river known in modern times as
the 111.
This river is the most important of the Rhine's
Alsatian tributaries, and has for many miles an
almost parallel course. It is joined by such streams
as the Bruche (Bruch, Breusch), the Doller, the
Thur, the Lauch, the Fecht, the Weiss, the Andlau,
etc. The Moselle carries other rivers notably the
Saar or Sarre to the Rhine. North of the 111,
moreover, the Rhine receives first the Moder, with
the latter 's tributary the Zorn, and afterwards the
Lauter, which separates Alsace from the Bavarian
Palatinate. Of the above-mentioned rivers only the
Rhine and the 111 the latter from Colmar to its
junction with the Rhine are navigable, but the
minor streams tend to enhance the land's fertility
and to assist its industries.
Moreover, the country is crossed by navigable
canals, dating from the French regime, which created
a great network of artificial waterways connecting all
parts of French territory. One of these canals, that
from the Rhone to the Rhine, crosses Alsace between
the 111 and the Rhine (taking the same direction as
those rivers) from the vicinity of Belfort to Strasburg.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 13
The other canal, that from the Marne to the Rhine,
comes from French Lorraine, and also runs to Stras-
burg, passing Saverne (turned into Zabern by the
Germans) on its way. There is a northern offshoot
of this canal extending to Saaralben.
Of course these waterways are not the only means
of communication. Roads and railways have been
multiplied by the Germans since the days of the
annexation. Most of the railways were constructed
for strategical purposes, but they have also added to
the Reichsland's material prosperity. The main line
from Paris to Strasburg, by way of Avricourt, meets
at Strasburg a line which follows the left bank of the
Rhine northward from Basle. Another links Stras-
burg to Wissembourg (Weissenburg). Another runs to
Rothau by way of Molsheim. Another joins Haguenau
to Sarreguemines, now Saargemund. Saverne is
connected by rail with Schlestadt (Schlettstadt) ;
Schlestadt with Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (Markirch) ;
Colmar with Brisach (Breisach) and Minister ; Sulz
with Guebwiller, Mulhouse with Mullheim in Baden,
as well as with Cernay (now called Sennheim) and
Wesserling. Nor have the French been idle in the
little part of Alsace remaining to them the Belfort
territory for since 1871 Belfort has been linked by
rail with Giromagny, Montbeliard, and Delle.
As in Alsace, so on the annexed plateau of Lorraine.
You find direct rail from Metz to Strasburg via
Saverne, rail to Metz from Kaiserslautern and Neun-
kirchen by the alternate routes of Saarlouis, Saar-
briicken, and Saargemund, the first via Boulay (Bol-
chen), the second and the third via Beningen, Falken-
berg, and Courcelles ; whilst other lines run from
Thionville (Diedenhofen) to Saargemund, and thence
to Haguenau in Alsace, besides which many short
14 THE TRUE STORY OF
cross-lines cover the country in virtually every direc-
tion, so that troops and materiel may be hurried
northward, southward, westward, eastward as occasion
may require. All those railways, extending to every
possible point of the Reichsland (in 1914 there were
1269 miles of normal and 50 of narrow gauge), form,
as it were, a great spider's web, or, as some may say,
suggest the tentacles of a formidable predatory
monster. At the same time, as was previously men-
tioned, the country has benefited by them in time of
peace.
Geographers have agreed to divide Alsace into
three zones : that of the Mountains the Vosges ; that
of the Slopes the last Jura and Vosgian spurs ; and
that of the Plain near the Rhine. The chain of the
Vosges starts from the vicinity of Belfort, and extends
northward to Rhenish Bavaria. Generally speaking,
its altitude decreases as it goes northward. Geologists
divide the chain (whose total length is about 120
miles) into two sections of different formation
southward the " Crystalline " and northward the
"Limestone" Vosges. The highest mountain, the
Ballon de Guebwiller or Soulz, which is in the annexed
territory, has an altitude of about 4630 feet. Next
in altitude come the Hohneck (4440 feet), the Rothen-
bach or Rheinkopf the French and German Staff
maps differ (about 4290 feet), and the Ballon d j Alsace
(4062 feet). The name of ballon is given to several
of these heights on account of their rounded summits.
All of the above-named belong to the southern section
that is, to the Crystalline Vosges. Among the Lime-
stone heights the highest summit is that of Mount
Donon (about 3292 feet).
The three principal passes are those of the Col de
Bussang, affording communication between Mulhouse
ALSACE-LORRAINE 15
and Epinal ; the Col du Bonhomme, by which you may
go from Colmar to Epinal ; and that of Sainte-Marie-
aux-Mines, between Schlestadt and Saint-Die. The
Schlucht, Saales, and Saverne passes also have their
importance. Of all the Vosges mountains the one
whose name became the best known to British readers
during the earlier period of the Great War was the
Hartmannsweiler Peak, which is the last height of
consequence among the Vosgian spurs in the direction
of Mulhouse. There was fierce contention between
the French and Germans for possession of the summit
(3107 feet above sea-level), but it was eventually
captured by the Chasseurs Alpins, and gave the
French command of four roads and several miles of
railway lines. The exploit was the more meritorious
as the mountain sides are extremely abrupt and the
German defences were formidable.
North of Mount Donon and between Alsace and
the annexed part of Lorraine, the Vosgian chain
declines rapidly to altitudes of 1700 and 1600 feet.
Near Saverne it is intersected by the valley of the
Zorn, beyond which it becomes a succession of slopes
and rounded summits which never exceed an elevation
of 1300 feet. Generally speaking, along the whole
length of the chain, the steepest acclivities are on the
Alsatian side. Here you find dark ravines overlooked
by picturesque feudal ruins, such as are seldom seen
on the French side, together with wild or charming
valleys, watered by rivulets the Doller, the Thur, the
Lauch, the Lieprette, the Bruche, and so on, whose
names the valleys take. The species of trees with which
the mountains are so largely planted vary according
to the altitude. The loftier parts are clothed with
conifers of several kinds, and on the lower parts you
find beech, oak, ash, birch, larch, hornbeam, chestnut,
16 TfiE TRUE STORY OF
and elm. There is good mountain pasture on many
points, but the forest lands, though they diminished
by 10 per cent, or so between the French Revolution
and the German annexation, are still of great extent.
In 1870 it was estimated that the Alsatian forests
(not only in the Vosges, but in other parts also)
covered nearly 730,000 acres. A return made to-
wards the beginning of the present century showed
an area of 685,000 acres in Alsace and of 412,000
acres in the annexed part of Lorraine. Since then
large clearings would appear to have been effected.
The wild cherry (merisier) is grown extensively in
the vicinity of the Vosges, its fruit being used (as in
the Black Forest) for making Kirsch. Alsace, gene-
rally, is a land of fruits. The late oblong plum
(Prunus sebastica) called Quetsche and Zwetsche in
German, predominates in all parts of the Reichsland,
there being, perhaps, some three million trees of this
kind. There are also more than a million apple-trees,
three-quarters of a million pear-trees (about half in
Lorraine) ; virtually the same number of cherry-trees,
nearly half a million walnut-trees, and between 30,000
and 40,000 chestnuts.
In Alsace these trees thrive mostly in what is called
the Zone of the Slopes, which also includes most of
the vineyard land.
Before the annexation the Alsatian vineyards
covered between 60,000 and 62,000 acres, and 20,000
families were more or less interested in viticulture.
To-day (return of 1913) more than 67,000 acres in
the whole Reichsland (which of course includes
Lorraine) are under vines. The vintage of 1913 (a bad
year) yielded, however, less than 4,000,000 gallons of
wine. The growths of the annexed part of Lorraine
are of less importance than those of Alsace. It was
ALSACE-LORRAINE 17
the Emperor Probus who, in the latter part of the
third century, first ordered the plantation of vines in
the Rhenish region, in which Alsace was included.
Most of the vineyards are on the slopes below the
Vosges, between Thann and Mutzig. There are vines
also in the Sundgau, at Kochersberg, and along the
slopes of Lower Alsace as far as Wissembourg, and
others again near the 111 in the neighbourhood of
Colmar, and in the plain near Ochsenfeld. The best
wines are those of Ribeauville, Riquewihr, Guebwiller,
and Thann, followed by those of Neuweiler and Wolks-
heim, all in Upper Alsace. White wines predominate,
but red are made also. In the vicinity of Colmar
some vine-growers prepare w r hat is called a vin de paille
or " straw- w r ine," from the circumstance that the
grapes are dried and ripened upon straw for several
weeks before they are committed to the wine-press.
This Colmar straw- wine enjoys considerable repute.
It is on record that in the earlier part of the fourteenth
century quantities of Alsatian wine were sent to
England. Later there was a flourishing wine-trade
with Holland. Of more recent times the Germans
have either sent us Alsatian wines in their natural
state as Rhenish or Moselle, or have blended them
with their own growths.
The Alsatian " Slope Zone " is well populated and
very fertile. In the Upper section vines and fruit-
trees are abundant, whilst in the part pertaining to
Lower Alsace the cultivation of cereals is more
extensive. In the Zone of the Plain the subsoil near
the Rhine is often gravel, but the land becomes more
and more fertile in character as you gradually recede
from the river. The Rhine bed is said to have
formerly had a width of from 330 to as many as
1100 yards, but it has been gradually reduced by
18 THE TRUE STORY OF
dykes and drainage to 260 yards or thereabouts.
There are still many marshy meadows and peat-beds
on the Alsatian side of the river. Most of the large
Alsatian towns are in the Zone of the Plain, and here
the density of the population is often twice as great
as in the Mountainous Zone. Cereal crops predomi-
nate, but vegetables are grown extensively, notably
potatoes and cabbages, the latter being sent largely
into Germany to be transformed there into Sauerkraut.
Hops are also grown in this Zone, and tobacco is
cultivated there.
The Lothringen or Lorraine section of the Reichs-
land offers from the agricultural standpoint less
interesting features than Alsace. Most of this Lor-
raine land is a plateau, the highest ground being that
nearest to the Vosges. In the valley of the Moselle
the fruit-trees flower a fortnight earlier than on the
plateau. The vine cannot be cultivated above an
altitude of 1100 feet, or corn above 2600 feet, whereas
in the Vosges it is grown at a height of 3000 feet and
more. Thus the annexed part of Lorraine is more
noted for its iron mines, smelting furnaces, metallur-
gical manufactures, salt pits, potteries, etc. It is
watered on the west by the Moselle, which passes
Metz and Thionville before entering Rhenish Prussia,
and towards the east by the Sarre or Saar (Saravius),
which takes its rise in the Vosges and flows northward
past Sarrebourg and Sarreguemines before inclining
to the north-east in order to unite with the Moselle.
Across the frontier of Rhenish Prussia it is joined by
the Nied, which waters the more central part of the
annexed Lorraine. Another river, the Seille, takes its
rise in the southern part of the annexed districts,
winds for a short distance through French territory,
and ultimately joins the Moselle at Metz. The valleys
ALSACE-LORRAINE
19
and slopes near these various rivers are the most
fertile parts of the Lothringen division of the annexed
country.
The following tables supply some particulars
respecting the crops raised in the entire Reichsland :
ACREAGE UNDER CULTIVATION
Crops
1900
1913
Hay and other fodder.
462,154
485,755
Wheat 1
385,394
342,695
Oats
274,656
282,165
Rye
116,445
138,632
Barley .....
132,105
122,727
Potatoes
224,345
226,790
Vines .....
67,090
Hops .....
9,796
10,462
Tobacco .....
2,810
3,842
PRODUCE IN METRIC TONS OF 2204 LB.
Crops
1900
1913
Hay and other fodder.
630,715
137,786 *
Wheat
228,529
238,048
Oats
155,301
209,963
Rye . .,...
68,674
92,889
Barley .....
92,518
108,678
Potatoes ....'.
1,135,474
1,226,463
Wine (gallons) .
9,173,912 f
3,934,442
Hops .....
38,346
15,950
Tobacco .....
2,897
4,878
A little supplementary information may be added
to those tables. Lucern and clover figure among the
crops cultivated for fodder. Industrial plants, such
as colza, cameline, poppies, hemp, and flax, are grown
* Hay only. t ^ 1897.
20 TH*E TRUE STORY OF
in various parts. The Alsatian-Lorrainer being a
beer- as well as a wine-drinker, large quantities of the
former beverage are brewed. Indeed, if one may
trust certain returns, the beer produced in the Reichs-
land in 1913 exceeded 31 million gallons. The
quantity seems a large one, but it sinks almost to
insignificance when one finds it stated that Bavaria
brewed no less than 418 million gallons of beer in the
same year. What a paradise that indicates for the
devotees of Gambrinus ! Thirteen years previously
(1900) it is recorded that 77 breweries in Alsace-
Lorraine had an output of nearly 25 million gallons,
representing a value of over 1,824,000 marks or
approximately 90,000. I have found no figures
respecting the quantity of spirits distilled, but it was
valued in 1900 at rather more than 80,000.
The cattle in Alsace-Lorraine belong largely to the
Swiss and Jura breeds. The cheese of Minister near
the Vosges has a reputation, but when it is placed
upon the market it is usually too odoriferous and of
too high a flavour to suit a palate with any pretensions
to delicacy. Other cheeses are made at the many
chalets a frontage among the high Vosgian pastures,
the total output being perhaps 200 tons annually.
The horses common to the Reichsland are said to be
descended from an Asiatic breed. They are usually
small. Formerly very hardy and vigorous in spite of
their size, they appear to have been spoilt by inju-
dicious crossings. The pigs, in which Celtic, Iberian,
and English breeds are supposed to be combined,
have big heads and narrow bodies. Geese are abun-
dant in Alsace, particularly in the Rhenish districts.
Virtually everybody has heard of Strasburg pates de
foie gras.
There are half a dozen salt mines in the Reichsland,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 21
the principal being those of Dieuze, Chateau-Satins,
and Forbach. The annual output of common salt
ranges from 70,000 to 77,000 metric tons, valued at a
trifle less than l per ton. Sodium sulphate is also
worked to the extent of about 8000 tons per annum.
Alum is also met with. Since the annexation a mine
of potassium alkaline has been found in Alsace, and
has been acquired by the Prussian Government. It
is estimated to be worth several millions of money.
The production of sulphuric acid and other chemicals
is very considerable. Petroleum wells exist at Lam-
pertsloch, Schwabwiller, and Pechelbronn, but their
output is extremely small.
There are few coal and iron mines in Alsace. The
latter are much more numerous in the annexed part
of Lorraine. Large quantities of coal and ore are
imported, but the statistics for 1913 give apparently
as the Reichsland's own output 21,136,265 metric
tons of iron ore (valued at over 2,736,000), and
3,795,932 tons of coal (value about 2,256,000). These
figures are far in excess of those for 1900, when the
output of coal was stated to be little more than a
million tons, whilst the iron ore did not amount to
quite seven millions. It is possible that the figures
for 1913 include imported coal and iron. Limestone
and gypsum are quarried very extensively, and
according to the returns for 1913 no fewer than
38,500 persons were then employed in the mines and
quarries. The metallurgical industries predominate
in Lorraine. There are important forges at Ars-sur-
Moselle. In Alsace one finds several works for the
construction of machinery, notably at Mulhouse,
Guebwiller, and Thann.
Paper is made on the He Napoleon near Mulhouse.
Rixheim specializes in wall-papers. Faience as well
22 THE TRUE STORY OF
as other pottery is produced at Sarreguemines, Sierck,
and Niedwiller. Glass is manufactured in the vicinity
of Sarreguemines and Sarrebourg. The Munzthal
crystal works take the first rank. Further, the
chemical works of Bouxwiller are important. One
other establishment may be mentioned before passing
to the textile industries that is the famous Piscicul-
tural School of Huninguen on the left bank of the
Rhine in Upper Alsace. Millions of salmon fry have
been provided by this establishment founded under
the French regime in 1852 for the rivers of Germany,
France, Sweden, and other countries.
Textiles represent in importance and value fully a
third of the Reichsland industries. The cotton manu-
factures are the most important in the whole German
Empire. Virtually all the cotton goods imported by
France from Germany prior to the Great War came
from Alsace, and represented, on an average, a value
of about 1,120,000 annually. The first cotton-
printing works to be established at Mulhouse was
founded by Samuel Koechlin in 1746, but cotton-
spinning did not begin in Alsace until 1810 (in the
midst of the Napoleonic wars) when mills were built
at Wesserling. The calico produced at Mulhouse
under the First French Empire cost from three to
four francs per metre ; the price of the printed
cottons or indiennes being from six to seven francs.
These printed goods became famous by reason of the
variety and tastefulness of their patterns and the
fastness of their excellent colours. Establishments
sprang up in other localities, and in 1828 the Haut-
Rhin (otherwise Upper Alsace) turned out 19,500,000
yards of these textiles. In 1870, just prior to the war
which led to the annexation, the output was nearly
three times as large. In 1828 the business done by
ALSACE-LORRAINE 23
the cotton-spinners represented 600,000, which before
the annexation became 3,600,000 ; whilst the printing
trade increased from 1,120,000 to 2,000,000. At
the outbreak of the Great War the figures were very
much larger, although after the annexation in 1871
the trade suffered severely some manufacturers re-
moving their works to France, and others, whilst
retaining their Alsatian establishments, founding
additional ones on French territory.
One of the descendants of the Koechlin whom
I previously mentioned took two partners named
Schmalzer and Dollfus. The last-named became a
distinguished economist and did much to improve the
circumstances of his workmen. In 1853 he founded
at Mulhouse a Workers' Dwelling Society, and within
the next twenty years a thousand houses had been
erected, and for the most part completely paid for
by the workmen who bought them. They were of
various styles and sizes, and far superior to anything
else of the kind which then existed in France. The
average price of these houses (freehold) was 140,
and the purchaser was required to pay 10 down and
the balance by instalments in fourteen years. Carried
out with integrity and great solicitude for the workers,
the scheme proved so successful that similar societies
were established at Colmar and Guebwiller.
The Alsatian woollen manufactures are less con-
siderable than the cotton ones, but there are woollen
as well as cotton mills at Mulhouse, which with its
suburb of Dornach had a population of 105,488
inhabitants at the census of 1910. Different kinds of
machinery and various chemicals are made there.
Textiles and textile machinery are also produced at
Guebwiller. Textiles are made also at Colmar, Tiirk-
heim, Winzenheim, Munster, and Logelbach. Cloth is
24 ALSACE-LORRAINE
bleached, dyed, and finished in the valley of the Thur.
Wesserling, Cernay, Thann, Wilier, Moosch, and Saint-
Amarin manufacture yarn and cloth as well as
machines and chemicals. In the valley of the
Lieprette, at Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines and neighbouring
localities, cotton and woollen mixtures are produced.
Again, there are textile manufactures at Erstein and
Schlestadt ; whilst at Massevaux and various villages
in the valley of the Doller the manufacture of yarn
and cloth is supplemented by that of chemicals and
the preparation of leather.
II
CITIES, TOWNS, AND NOTED SPOTS
The Divisions of Alsace-Lorraine : Strasburg Old and New : The
Cathedral and the Squares : The " Marseillaise " : Mementoes of
French Rule : Haguenau and some Battlefields : Saverne and its
Palace : Bouxwiller, Marmoutier, Wasselonne, and Molsheim : The
Ban de la Roche and Pastor Oberlin : St. Odilia, Patroness of Alsace :
The Pagan Walls : Barr and Andlau : The Legend of the Empress
Ricardis : Erstein and Schlestadt : Upper Alsace : Colmar : Ribeau-
vil!6 and the King of the Musicians : Sundry small Towns : Baths for
Lunatics : Marshal Lefebvre on Ancestry : Guebwiller and its Wine :
Ensisheim, Thann, and Kleber : Little Towns in the Thur Valley :
Democratic Mulhouse and the Chatterer's Stone : Massevaux and
Catherine the Great : Altkirch and Ferrette : In annexed Lorraine :
Metz Old and New : The Kaiser as Daniel : Adjacent Battlefields :
Thionville : The Towns on the Sarre : Forbach and Spicheren :
Niederbronn and its Waters : Brave Bitche and Phalsburg : Dieuze
and Chateau-Salins.
IT has previously been mentioned that after the war
of 1870-71 the Germans allowed the chief administra-
tive divisions of the annexed territory to remain
much as they had been under the French rule, that is
to say, the authorities of the new Reichsland consti-
tuted three Bezirke, two of them corresponding with
the former Alsatian departments of the Bas-Rhin and
the Haut-Rhin which, indeed, represented in essential
respects the so-called Nordgau and Sundgau of early
times and the third embracing the annexed parts of
the Meurthe and Moselle departments of Lorraine.
Each Bezirk was subdivided into several so-called
Kreise or circles, suggestive of French arrondissements,
the result being as follows : First Bezirk : Lower
Alsace. Capital : Strasburg, which also became the
25
2(5 THE TRUE STORY OF
seat of government for the whole Reichsland.
Kreise : Strasburg City and Strasburg Country, Wis-
sembourg, Haguenau, Saverne, Molsheim, Erstein,
and Schlestadt. Second Bezirk : Upper Alsace.
Capital : Colmar. Kreise : Colmar, Ribeauville,
Guebwiller, Thann, Mulhouse, and Altkirch. Third
Bezirk : Lothringen or Lorraine. Capital : Metz.
Kreise: Metz City and Metz Country, Thionville,
Sarrebourg, Chateau-Salins, Boulay, Sarreguemines,
and Forbach.
Strasburg, whose population increased from 70,000
to 84,000 between 1840 and 1870, was in 1910 the
year of the last census a city of 179,000 inhabitants,
rather more than half of these being Catholics and the
others Protestants, Freethinkers, and Jews, the last-
named numbering some 5000. It would have been
impossible to crowd so many people within the limits
of the city's former fortifications, designed by the
famous French engineer Vauban, and during the
earlier years of the annexation these defences, with
the exception of the southern ramparts and the
citadel, were demolished by the Germans, and re-
placed by a new enceinte which doubled the city's
perimeter, most of the land thus enclosed within the
municipal limits lying to the north and north-east of
ancient Strasburg. The new fortifications were pro-
vided with twelve gates ; such of Vauban's work,
including the citadel, that was allowed to remain,
was more or less modernized, and fourteen outlying
detached forts were erected, eleven of them being
west of the River 111 and three on the east. The 111,
forming two principal and various smaller arms, inter-
sects the city. Below the latter it is joined by the
Marne to Rhine Canal, and above it by the Rhine and
Rhone Canal, as well as by a tributary, the Bruch,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 27
which is partially canalized. Further, the principal
canals are united by a subsidiary canal de ceinturc.
The Rhine, into which the 111 flows, is about two and
a half miles distant from the Place Kleber in the
central part of old Strasburg. More than once, in
the long ago, I crossed the great river which, in its
course between Germany and Alsace, bears almost
countless little islands upon its bosom by one or
another of the bridges conducting to the town of Kehl
in the Grand Du^hy of Baden.
The new part of Strasburg is full of public edifices
and private mansions erected by the Germans. Here
are found the so-called Imperial Palace, the Palace of
the Delegations, the German University, and the
great central railway station. Some of these buildings
are not displeasing to the eye. The German archi-
tects adopted the style of the French Renaissance for
the principal university building, erected between
1878 and 1884, and that of the Florentine Renaissance
for the Imperial Palace (1883-88). At the railway
station an attempt is made to impress the traveller
with a sense of the German domination by means of
two large crude frescoes one depicting Frederick
Barbarossa entering Haguenau in the twelfth century,
and the other the present Kaiser's grandfather entering
Strasburg in 1879.
The pomposity of the new German town contrasts
strongly with the picturesqueness of the ancient city,
where high-gabled houses line narrow streets and
cluster round little squares, whilst from the centre the
spire of the renowned cathedral rises to a height of
almost exactly 466 feet above the pavement.* It
* I find old accounts saying 474 feet, but this may have been a miscal-
culation, for I do not think that the spire was shortened during the many
repairs which the cathedral underwent after the fiendish German bombardment
of 1870.
28 THE TRUE STORY OF
thus soars to an altitude of 132 feet above the summit
of Saint Paul's, and is sixteen feet higher than the
principal Egyptian Pyramid. The first church raised
on this site was one of clay and timber set up by the
Frankish ruler Clovis. A better edifice was founded
by Charlemagne, but was struck by lightning early in
the eleventh century, when the present cathedral was
begun. Thus a little is Romanesque though most is
of the ogival style. The greater part, perhaps, dates
from the thirteenth century, but only in the fifteenth
were the towers, one of which bears the famous spire,
erected. Long years ago I climbed to the lantern,
thence to the crown, and thence to the rosette, and
looked down upon the old faded tiled roofs of the city,
and thence over the wonderful panorama of surround-
ing country the Vosges on the west, the Rhine and
the Black Forest on the east. Most of the cathedral's
beautiful stained-glass windows were shattered by
the bombardment of 1870 ; much of the general
masonry and the sculpture-work which were de-
stroyed or defaced, first during the French Revolution
and later by the bombardment I have mentioned,
are quite modern, as is also the roof, which the
German shells perforated in many places ; but, on
the whole, the work of restoration has been well
performed.
One of the cathedral's curiosities is a remarkable
astronomical clock, the present mechanism of which
dates from 1838-42, having been reconstructed in
order to replace similar works of the sixteenth century,
which after nearly 250 years of service absolutely
refused to do any further duty. The mechanism sets
quite a number of allegorical figures in motion such,
for instance, as Father Time, the Four Ages of Life,
the Seven Days of the Week, the Apostles and the
ALSACE-LORRAINE 29
Christ. At noon every day the twelve Apostles pass
before Christ, bowing to Him as they go, whilst He
blesses them with upraised hand, and a cock crows
thrice and claps its wings. This clock luckily escaped
destruction in 1870.
Another interesting church at Strasburg is that
dedicated to Saint Thomas, where you may see the
masterpiece of the great French sculptor Pigalle
that is, the mausoleum of Marshal Saxe, who, German
though he w r as, entered the service of France and
gained victories for her at Raucoux, Lawfeld, and
Fontenoy. Pigalle, who gave five and twenty years
of his life to this work, portrayed the marshal expiring
serenely, whilst France, personified by a beautiful
figure, strove to detain him and to ward off the
threatening approach of death.
The largest of the city's squares before the annexa-
tion was the Place Kleber, where stands a bronze
statue of the famous general of that name a native
of Strasburg, son of a stone-mason there, and in early
life an architect who enlisted in the armies of the
first French Republic, distinguished himself in the
siege of Mayence, decided the defeat of the Austrians
at Fleurus, and fought against us in Egypt, where he
was assassinated in the year 1800. As the sequel of
this narrative will show, Kleber was only one of many
Alsatians who became glorious in the service of the
France they loved. In 1838 his remains were de-
posited in a vault under his statue, and they still lie
there to-day. Another of the city's squares, the
Place Gutenberg, is adorned with a statue of the
famous printer, who worked at his inventions at
Strasburg before perfecting them at Mayence. This
fine monument, due to the French sculptor David
d' Angers, depicts Gutenberg holding a " proof " which
80 T&E TRUE STORY OF
he has just taken from his press, and which bears the
words : " And there was light." *
In the sixteenth-century building where the Stras-
burg Chamber of Commerce meets another interesting
statue may be found, one of Alsace, by Bartholdi,
the Alsatian sculptor to whom France owes her Lion
of Belfort and America her Liberty lighting the
World. Further, in a garden on one of the Rhine
islands the He des Epis a couple of miles south of
the city, there is a monumental cenotaph to the
memory of the valiant Desaix, who defended the
passage of the river against the Austrians in 1796,
helped Napoleon to gain the Battle of the Pyramids
in 1798, and two years later fell on the field of
Marengo at the very moment when victory was being
achieved. The monument on the He des Epis bears in
French the inscription, " To General Desaix, the Army
of the Rhine, 1801," and is adorned with bas-reliefs
and a medallion portrait of this famous French
soldier. The Germans have done their best to dese-
crate this tribute to his memory by capping it with
an abominable helmet. Fortunately the remains of
Desaix do not lie beneath any Teutonic symbol.
They were interred on the Great Saint-Bernard.
No. 4 on the Place de Broglie at Strasburg a
square laid out in 1740 by the French Marshal of that
name, who distinguished himself in the Seven Years'
War is quite an historic house, for there in 1792
dwelt Baron Dietrich, Mayor of Strasburg, and there
in Dietrich's drawing-room, towards the end of April
that year, was sung for the first time that immortal
hymn of defiance, the " Marseillaise," f which Rouget
de I'lsle, then a young officer of engineers, composed
* " And God said, Let there be light, and there was light." Genesis, i, 3'
f The aged Madame Aimable Tastu, a Lorrainer by birth (she came
into the world at Metz in 1798) and a family connexion of Rouget de I'lsle,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 81
for his comrades of the Army of the Rhine, and which
was directed essentially against the Prussian and
Austrian invaders of French territory. As it hap-
pened, when the revolutionaries of Marseilles marched
on Paris they appropriated Rouget de Flsle's stirring
words and notes, which had been carried southward
by soldiers sent to defend Toulon ; and as they, the
Marseillais, were the first to make the glorious hymn
known in the capital, the Parisians called it the
" Marseillaise," a name it has ever since retained. It
was dedicated by Rouget de Flsle to the septua-
genarian Marshal Luckner, whom the Robespierrists
guillotined two years afterwards for lack of energy in
his old age.
There is great uncertainty respecting the quarters
which De 1'Isle occupied at Strasburg when he com-
posed the " Marseillaise." Claims have been put
forth on behalf of several houses, but none appears to
be authentic. Many, however, are the quaint or
interesting dwellings that one finds in the old city,
some of them dating back to the latter part of the
Middle Ages. In addition to the mementoes of the
French rule to which I have referred, mention may
be made of the Promenade de Contades, laid out by
the Marshal Duke of that name in 1764, and of the
Orangery, which owes its origin to Napoleon's first
wife, the Empress Josephine. The university, re-
established in new buildings by the Germans, sprang
from a Protestant school founded in the first half of
whom she well remembered (he died at Choisy-le-Roi, near Paris, in 1836,
when seventy-six years old), told me in her last years that De I'lsle was
composing by way of pastime sundry little pastoral and love pieces when
the " Marseillaise " suddenly exploded from his brain. This statement is
borne out by an early edition of his collected verses, which are mostly dated,
and a copy of which exists in the British Museum library. Mme. Tastu
herself wrote some very fair poetry, but was best known by her many workf
in prose for youthful reeding. She died in 1885.
82 TH*E TRUE STORY OF
the sixteenth century. About a hundred years later
this school became a university, and in 1772 Goethe
took his degree as Doctor of Laws there. The Revo-
lution suppressed the foundation, but under the last
Bourbons it was revived as an Academic royale. I
shall refer more particularly to the new institutions
when dealing in another chapter with the efforts to
Germanize Alsace since the annexation. As for the
city's public library, the building and its contents
were largely destroyed by the Germans in 1870.
Many precious manuscripts and incunabula were then
annihilated among the former being the famous
" Hortus Deliciarum " of the Abbess Herrade of
Hohenberg, which was richly decorated with illumina-
tions and miniatures of Byzantine style. As with the
fathers, so with the sons, as witness the fate of the
library of Lou vain.
I have written at some length respecting Strasburg,
because it is the capital of Alsace. The chief towns
of the other Kreise directly attached to Strasburg
under the German administrative system may be
referred to more briefly. North of the capital city is
Haguenau, a town of nearly 19,000 inhabitants, on
the Moder. It was fortified by the Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa, and there is a story that our Richard
Cceur de Lion appeared there before a gathering of
princes while he was a prisoner of Frederick's son and
successor, Henry the Cruel, to whom he had been
handed over by Leopold of Austria. Haguenau's
most notable building is the church of Saint-George,
dating principally from the thirteenth century. Pro-
ceeding from this point in the direction of Wissem-
bourg (Weissenburg), whose Kreis or circle is the most
northern of Lower Alsace, one could visit, prior to
the Great War, the scenes of some of the earliest
ALSACE-LORRAINE 33
encounters between the French and Germans in 1870.
Here, for instance, are Worth, Froeschwiller, and
Reichshoffen, all associated with the unfortunate
defeat of MacMahon's army, which was the first really
severe blow that France received. Reichshoffen,
whose name recalls the famous desperate charge of
the French cuirassiers,* is the largest of these localities,
having 3000 inhabitants, whereas Worth (which for
us, as for the Germans, has given its name to the
battle) counts but 1000, and Froeschwiller only 600.
It is, however, in the church of the last-named locality
that one finds the chief memorials to the men of the
contending armies who fell in the great fight an
altar of black marble dedicated to the French, and
one of red sandstone to the Germans.
Wissembourg, associated with the earlier defeat of
Abel Douay in the same war, stands on the Lauter, at
the extreme northern limit of Lower Alsace. It is a
place of some 6800 souls, and possesses a fine church,
which comprises a twelfth-century Romanesque tower,
but is in other respects an example of early Gothic.
Here in 1704-6 Marshal Villars established some
famous lines which saved this part of France from
invasion.
North-west of Strasburg willbe found the Kreis
or circle of Saverne, called Zabern by the Germans.
This town one of 9000 people was the Tres Tabernae
of the Roman itineraries. It passed in the course of
time to the Duchy of Lorraine, and in 1525 was
seized by a multitude of rebellious peasantry, known
* The charge really took place in the vicinity of Morsbronn, which is
about five and a half miles distant from Reichshoffen. A monument erected
at Morsbronn in 1873 is inscribed, " Aux Cuirassiers dits de Reichshoffen."
At Reichshoffen itself there is an obelisk to the memory of the heroic French
troopers. The ironworks of this town were first established by Baron Dietrich,
to whom I referred in connexion with the " Marseillaise." See p. 30, ante.
G
34 THE TRUE STORY OF
as the Rustauds or Rustics. Duke Anthony of
Lorraine having besieged them, they capitulated on
the understanding that their lives should be spared
provided they gave up their weapons. But no sooner
was this effected than the hireling German lansquenets
in the Duke's pay attacked them, and cut thousands
of them down whilst they attempted to escape. The
Duke himself could not restrain his ferocious soldiery.
Later, Saverne (which often suffered during the
Thirty Years' War) passed as a lordship to the Bishops
of Strasburg, who retained possession until the French
Revolution. One of these prelates, Cardinal Louis
de Rohan, erected here a considerable part of an
imposing chateau or palace with monumental faades
and beautiful grounds. The work was carried on by
his successor, the notorious Cardinal Edouard de
Rohan, who was duped and swindled by the intriguing
Countess de la Motte in the affair of the famous
Diamond Necklace. To-day the once sumptuous
palace of Saverne is but a German barrack. The
town stands at an elevation of some 600 feet above
the Zorn and the Marne and Rhine Canal, on the
verge of the Alsatian Plain. Behind it rise some fine
wooded heights, and by reason of its beautiful situa-
tion Saverne was the favourite place of sojourn of
that well-known writer, Edmond About, who was by
birth a Lorrainer. Comprised within the Kreis of
Saverne is the town of Bouxwiller (Buchsweiler),
which is situated just under the Bassberg, one of
the heights of the Lower Vosges. The little place
derives some importance from the sulphate of
iron and lignite deposits which are worked in its
vicinity.
Skirting the Vosges southward from Saverne, one
passes Marmoutier (Germanized as Maursmunster), a
ALSACE-LORRAINE 35
town of 3600 people, deriving its name from an abbey
which, founded originally by a disciple of the Irish
Saint Colomban, subsequently pertained to the Con-
gregation de Saint-Maur. Farther southward is
Wasselonne (now Wasselnheim), a locality of much
the same size, with several quarries whence the stone
for building Strasburg Cathedral was extracted. Yet
more to the south and on the left bank of the Bruch,
between the Alsatian vine slopes and the plain, stands
Molsheim, a picturesque place of 3000 souls with
a fourteenth- to sixteenth-century church, and a
charming old town hall faced by a square where
stands an obelisk bearing in French the inscription :
"To the Children of the Town who died for
the Country, 1870-71." * One needs no further
evidence that the folk of Molsheim were attached
to France.
On ascending the Bruch towards its source in the
Vosges there will be found a picturesque and interest-
ing little region known as the Ban de la Roche or
Steintal, the former name being derived from an
ancient castle called the Chateau de la Roche. This
district was desolated during the Thirty Years' War,
and in the eighteenth century the inhabitants of its
eight poor villages or hamlets were plunged in the
greatest ignorance and deepest misery. In 1767,
however, a Protestant pastor named Jean Frederic
Oberlin, a native of Strasburg and the younger brother
of a distinguished Alsatian philosopher and scholar
(Jermie Jacques Oberlin), was appointed minister
at the village of Waldersbach in the Roche region.
Distressed by the sight of so much misery one
knows how terrible was the condition of the peasantry
throughout France during the last years of the old
* " Aux Enfants de la Ville morts pour la Patrie."
36 THE TRUE STORY OF
regime Oberlin set himself to work to remedy it.
Assisted by his wife, his sons, his daughters, and a
dependent, who was really more a friend than a
servant, he helped the peasants to make roads,
bridged the Bruch between Fouday and Rothau with
his own hands, opened schools, gave instruction in
weaving, procured fruit-trees and potatoes for plant-
ing, in fact raised the inhabitants to a degree of
cheerful comfort such as had never previously been
known to them, nor, indeed, to their fathers either.
Oberlin died in 1826, being then eighty-six years old.
In the churchyard at Fouday (now called Urbach by
the Germans) there is a stone bearing his name, and,
in French, the words : "He was for Sixty Years the
Father of this Canton. The Memory of the Righteous
shall be Blessed." According to some accounts
Oberlin's remains are not buried here, but rest beside
those of his wife at Waldersbach, where he had his
parsonage, and where, we believe, many mementoes
of this most worthy man are still preserved.
From the Ban de la Roche another interesting spot
may be reached, the Hohwald and the famous con-
vent of Saint Odilia, who is regarded as the Patroness
of Alsace. She was the daughter of the seventh-
century Alsatian Duke Adalric the Cruel, and was
born blind, for which reason her father would have
had her killed had not her nurse fled with her to a
Burgundian convent. There, according to the legend,
on being baptized, the sense of sight was miraculously
bestowed on her. Her unnatural father repented,
and in course of time, finding her unwilling to marry,
gave her the Castle of Hohenburg in order that she
might transform it into a convent. The spot is
famous throughout Alsace, and is the scene every
Whitsuntide of a great Catholic pilgrimage. The
ALSACE-LORRAINE 37
scenery, with its crags and forests, is very striking.
There is a spring whither people repair when they are
afflicted with complaints of the eyesight, and in the
vicinity one finds some remains of a so-called Heiden-
mauer or Pagans' Wall, composed of unhewn stones
heaped together without cement, the whole averag-
ing from eight to ten feet in height. Similar walls are
found on the Taennichel, Frankenburg, Guerbaden,
Ochsenstein, and Heiligenberg heights. Some writers
have claimed that these structures date from abso-
lutely prehistoric times, others have ascribed them to
the Gauls or the Romans. There is reason to believe
that they existed prior to the Roman dominion and
were raised by the native Celts as barriers against the
Germanic hordes which repeatedly poured across the
Rhine, bent, like their descendants of to-day, upon
overrunning Gaul. In some instances the more or
less circular character of the structures indicates that
they formed camps of refuge from the invaders.
The Romans, doubtless, made use of them after Julius
Caesar had vanquished the Swabian Germans of
Ariovistus, and Alsace came under the protecting
Roman rule.
In normal times the town of Barr which is not
far from Saint Odilia's convent, and where there are
some mineral springs used to be extensively patron-
ized for the excursions which may be made from it,
not only to Sainte-Odile, but to other interesting spots,
such as the castle and the town of Andlau, associated
with the counts of that name. The last member of
this family that we ever heard of was General Count
d' Andlau, a Senator of France, who, after powerfully
contributing to expose the conduct of Marshal Bazaine
at Metz, became implicated, unhappily, in a great
scandal respecting the sale of the Legion of Honour
38 THE TRUE STORY OF
in President Grevy's time, and thereupon fled to
South America. Barr is associated with a singular
legend respecting Ricardis, the repudiated wife of
Charles the Fat, Emperor of Germany and Italy, and
King of France. Ricardis, it is said,* was entreating
Heaven to designate to her some suitable place of
asylum when an angel appeared and told her to
select a spot where she would see something remark-
able. Soon afterwards, in her wanderings, she per-
ceived a she-bear who, with the help of her cubs, was
scratching the ground and throwing up a kind of
enceinte. Ricardis took this as a sign from Heaven,
and founded a famous abbey on the spot. I have
given this legend, as I gave that of Saint Odilia,
simply by way of exemplifying the many curious ones
which are current in Alsace.
East of the region at which I have just glanced,
and on the River 111, south of Strasburg, will be
found the old fortified town of Erstein (6000 inhabi-
tants) which is the centre of another Kreis of Lower
Alsace. Yet another is that of Schlestadt (Schlett-
stadt), a town situated still more to the south and not
far from the 111. Very ancient, the residence of some
of the Frankish kings, and possessing in its church of
Sainte-Foi (Saint Fides) one of the finest Romanesque
fanes in the Reichsland, Schlestadt ranked under the
French as a fourth-class fortress, but was dismantled
by the Germans in 1872. At the last census the
town had a population of 10,600.
We now enter the Bezirk of Upper Alsace, whose
chief town is Colmar. Situated in the Alsatian Plain,
* She was the daughter of a Count of Nordgau, and was accused of adultery
with a Lord of Verceil, against which charge she protested. She married
Charles in 877 and was afterwards crowned with him at Rome by Pope
John VIII. She died in 911 at the Alsatian monastery which she had
founded.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 39
it is watered by the Ill's tributary, the Lauch, and the
Logelbach Canal coming from the Fecht. An arti-
ficial waterway also connects it with the Rhone and
Rhine Canal. The central part of Colmar is a typical
old Alsatian town with irregular streets, wooden
bridges over the Logelbach, and houses of far-away
days, sometimes with painted fronts, sometimes with
ornate gables, sometimes yet more elaborate in the
Renaissance style, the whole contrasting strongly
with what may be seen in the modern outskirts. In
a word, there is much to interest the antiquarian and
the artist in the older part of Colmar. Bartholdi, the
sculptor,* was a native of the town, which displays
with pride several examples of his work among
others a statue of Jean Rapp, Napoleon's valiant
general who, being besieged in Dantzig, defended
it for a whole year in fact, to the last extremity;
secondly, a statue of Admiral Bruat, who commanded
the French Black Sea fleet in the Crimean War.
Both of these, like Bartholdi himself, belonged to
Colmar. Another example of the great sculptor's
powers will be found in the cemetery. It is a monu-
ment to the Colmarians who fell while fighting the
Germans at the engagement of Horburg on September
14, 1870.
France first acquired Colmar from the Swedes at
the time of the Thirty Years' War, but the union
severed in 1871 may be said to have dated more
precisely from January 1675, when Turenne, after
crossing the snowbound Vosges, routed the Germans
on the plain between Colmar and Turkheim and threw
them out of Alsace. The Alsatian Sovereign Council,
which under the sway of the Hapsburgs had been
accustomed to meet at Ensisheim, then removed to
* See p. 30, ante.
40 THE TRUE STORY OF
Colrnar. Since 1871 the Germans have made the
little city the seat of the Alsatian Qberlandesgericht
or Supreme Court. At the census of 1910 Colmar
counted nearly 44,000 inhabitants.
Ribeauville, the centre of the most northern
Colmarian circle, and called Rappoltsweiler by the
Germans, is very picturesquely situated below some
spurs of the Vosges where several old castles may be
seen, and where some of the best wine of Alsace is
vintaged. The town, now one of 6000 souls, pertained
anciently to the Lords of Ribeaupierre (Rappolt stein),
who were accounted kings of all itinerant musicians
and minstrels. There is an ancient house at Ribeau-
ville where the corporation of these tuneful wanderers
was wont to assemble, particularly on Pipers' Day,
September 8. When the last Lord of Ribeaupierre
and Ribeauville died, Louis XIV bestowed the seignory
on a Duke of Zwei-Brucken-Birkenfeid, who was a
general in his service. At the same time this duke
belonged to the House of Bavaria (Zwei-Briicken is
in the Rhenish Palatinate), and from him the present
Bavarian king is descended. The action of Louis XIV
in bestowing an Alsatian lordship on a foreigner
added yet another and a quite uncalled-for complica-
tion to the many in which Alsatian history was then
already entangled.
Not far from Ribeauville, but more among the
Vosges, is a little place long known as La Poultroie
but rechristened Schmerlach by the Germans, who in
like fashion have given the name of Diedolshausen to
the village of Le Bonhomme near the Vosgian pass of
that name. In the same way Orbey, in the Ribeau-
ville (or Rappoltsweiler) Kreis, has become Urbeis. It
is a place of 4500 souls, and possesses some silk and
cotton mills. Near it in the mountains are two
ALSACE-LORRAINE 41
lonely sheets of water known respectively as the
White and the Black Lakes.
Munster, a manufacturing town of 6000 souls, but
noted more particularly, as was mentioned in my first
chapter, for its odoriferous cheese,* stands in the
narrow valley of the Fecht, not far from the Schlucht
Pass of the Vosges, and about fifteen miles from
Colmar. In the Munster Valley, but nearer Colmar,
is Soultz (Sulzbad, 4800 inhabitants), noted for its
acidulous mineral waters, which in French days were
often called the baths for lunatics (bains des fous) as
they were held to be beneficial in restoring the mind
to equilibrium, particularly in cases of hysteria,
hypochondria, and so forth. On the south-east of
Colmar, beside the Rhone and Rhine Canal, and a
couple of miles or so from the last-named river, stands
Neuf-Brisach (Neu Breisach), built in Louis XIV's
time by Vauban as a means of keeping the predatory
Germans on their own side of the Rhenish waters. In
this same part of Upper Alsace will be found a little
place called Eguisheim, which prides itself less on its
conspicuous towered castle than on the fact that no
less a personage than a Pope was born there this
being Leo IX, who occupied the chair of St. Peter
from 1048 to 1054. It was at the time of this Alsatian
Pontiff that the severance of the Greek and the
Latin Churches was finally consummated. Ruffach
(3800 inhabitants), midway between Munster and
Neuf-Brisach, gave birth to another notable character,
Marshal Lefebvre, Duke of Dantzig, the blunt gallant
fellow who married his washerwoman, styled
" Madame Sans-Gene " by playwrights, though the
real Sans-Gene happens to have been quite a different
person. It was Lefebvre who, when a Prussian
* See p. 20, ante.
42 THE TRUE STORY OF
officer of the Junker strain sneered at Napoleon's
commanders, asking who were their ancestors, retorted
with well-justified pride : " Ancestors ? We are our
own ancestors ! "
Gueb wilier (Gebweiler) lies south of Ruffach, and
is a busy town of 13,000 people engaged chiefly in one
or another branch of the textile industries, though
some are concerned in viticulture, the produce of the
neighbouring vineyards, notably the wine known as
Kitterle, being very good growths. There are some
interesting ancient churches here, and on the south
side of the Ballon de Guebwiller, the highest mountain
in the Vosges, and near the Bussang Pass, one finds,
in the valley of Saint- Amarin, the ruins of the Abbey
of Murbach, dating from Charlemagne's time. Ensis-
heim, to which I previously referred,* stands on the
111 and the Bale to Strasburg railway line, but, though
it was once the capital of the Alsatian possessions of
the Hapsburgs and still displays an imposing town
hall and several other Renaissance edifices, it is now
decayed, and counts only 2500 inhabitants.
Thann, occupied by the French in the earlier part
of the Great War and still held by them at the time
I write as I hope will be permanently the case
ranked under the Germans as the centre of a Kreis
of Upper Alsace. Inhabited before the war by some
7500 people, it is placed in the valley of the River
Thur, among the Vosgian spurs, and is overlooked by
the ruins of the Castle of Engelburg, which Turenne
blew up in 1674, when the upper part of one of the
towers fell in a solid mass, and lies below the other
ruins like a huge barrel staved in at both ends, in
such wise that you may look through it as through
a telescope. The good folk of Thann call it " the
* See p. 39, ante.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 43
sorceress's eye." The town, which existed already in
the tenth century, contains a fine ogival church, sculp-
tured profusely. The chief portal is* particularly
remarkable for its statues and carvings depicting
the story of Jesus and the Virgin, and there is a
fine spire of delicate open work rising to a height of
300 feet. Two towers of the old fortifications of
Thann still remain, and the town hall is interesting,
for it was designed by General Kleber, who also
superintended the building w r ork, he being at the
time " architect of civil edifices " in Upper Alsace.
Before the present war Thann was noted for its
printed textiles, and particularly its chemical pro-
ducts. On the north-west is the bourg of Wesserling
(Hiisseren), also a little industrial locality, and in
peaceful times a centre for various excursions among
the mountains above the Thur Valley. Wesserling
itself is of interest, as it is built round a castle-capped
moraine of blocks of stone and gravel that fell from
a glacier at some far-away period. Cernay (Sennheim),
an old and formerly fortified town, now engaged in
the textile industries, lies slightly south-west of Thann
on the left bank of the Thur and at the foot of the
Vosges. Between it and Guebwiller on the north
rises the famous. Hartmannsweiler Peak.f
From Cernay one may reach Mulhouse (Miilhausen),
of whose industries some account was given in the
previous chapter. J Although, combined with its
industrial suburb Dornach, it is, in regard to popula-
tion, the second city of Alsace (105,500 inhabitants),
and at the same time the largest manufacturing centre
in the whole Reichsland, it yields administratively
* I don't know whether the church has suffered during the present war.
Possibly instead of " is " I ought to have written " was."
t See p. 15, ante.. J See p. 22 ante.
44 THE TRUE STORY OF
the pas to Colmar. It came at an early date under
the sway of the Bishops of Strasburg, and later under
that of the Hapsburgs, but joined the Decapole
League in the thirteenth century, drove out all nobles,
and became a free democratic city allied with the
Swiss of Basle, Soleure, and Berne already in 1466.
Mul house was never conquered by the French. At
the peace of Westphalia it was included among the
Swiss cantons, but in 1798 it quitted the Confedera-
tion and gave itself voluntarily to France. Watered
by the 111 and the Rhone and Rhine Canal, on which
there is a port, the town spreads out at the southern
end of the great Alsatian plain. Its prosperity even
in the days of French rule testified to the energy and
industry of its democratic citizens, for the raw cotton
for its manufactures had to be conveyed all the way
from Havre and Marseilles, whilst the coals it needed
were brought chiefly by canal from Saint-Etienne and
Rive-de-Gier, in the southern part of France.
The museum contains some good paintings and
objects of archaeological interest, but the only old
edifice of real account is the town hall, which was
built in 1552 and combines features of the Gothic
and the Renaissance styles. Inside there are some
curious mural paintings by a sixteenth-century Colmar
artist, and the council chamber has some windows of
stained glass, recalling Mulhouse's alliances with the
Swiss cantons and France. On the south-west front
used to hang a stone carved so as to represent a
human head and known as the Klapper stein or Pierre
des Bavards, otherwise the Chatterers' Stone. Folk
who were convicted of slander or picking quarrels
were compelled to carry this stone, hanging from
their necks, round the town on the market or fair
day following their sentence. This punishment for
ALSACE-LORRAINE 45
unbridled loquacity was last inflicted on February 28,
1781.
Due west of Mulhouse, but in the Vosges near the
French frontier, and separated by only a few heights
from Thann, is Massevaux, otherwise Masmiinster,
a town of between three and four thousand people,
which owes its name to a conventual establishment
founded in 720 by a certain Mason who was related to
Saint Odilia. It is called Coenobium Masonvillae in
ancient deeds, and a list of its abbesses from its
foundation until 1790 is extant. Occupied at one
time by Benedictine nuns it eventually became a
Chapter of Noble Dames, and there it was that
Catherine of Anhalt-Zerbst, afterwards famous as
Catherine the Great and the " Semiramis of the
North," received her education. Her career seems to
indicate that whatever accomplishments she may
have acquired among the noble dames of Massevaux,
no principles of morality were instilled into her.
South-west of Mulhouse and on the way towards
Belfort, Altkirch, the centre of the southernmost
Kreis of Upper Alsace, rises in terraced fashion on
an eminence above the right bank of the 111. Mulhouse
is generally accounted the capital of the so-called
Sundgau of Alsace, but in former times the term
applied more exactly to Altkirch that is, after its
southern neighbour Ferrette or Pfirt had declined.
Nowadays, however, Altkirch has barely 3500 inhabi-
tants. Its castle, where the archdukes of Austria
generally resided when they visited their Alsatian
possessions, has long been in ruins. The one existing
building of Altkirch that presents features of interest
is its old court of justice. The town is noted for the
fine glazed red bricks made in its vicinity.
Ferrette (Ferreta and Phirretum in old Latin
46 THE TRUE STORY OF
deeds) stands on a northern spur of the Jura Moun-
tains, which hereabouts form the frontier of Alsace
and Switzerland. I shall have occasion to speak of
it more particularly in my next chapter in connexion
with the early history of Alsace. Here it need only
be said that Ferrette, after serving as a Roman post
of observation, was ruled for some centuries by a line
of independent counts springing from the house of
Montbeliard, who acquired several other towns and
lordships in this part of Alsace. In 1324 these
possessions were conveyed by their heiress, Joan, to a
member of the house of Austria whom she married.
At a subsequent date they were mortgaged to Charles
the Rash of Burgundy, but reverted to the Hapsburgs
when Charles's only child and heiress, Marie, married
the Emperor Maximilian I. Finally they were ceded
to France, with virtually all the Sundgau and Upper
Alsace, by the Treaty of Westphalia, otherwise
Minister (1648), which was confirmed eleven years
later by the Treaty of the Pyrenees.
We have now reached the southern limits of Alsace,
and must retrace our steps northward in order to
glance at the other division of the Reichsland, the
north-eastern part of Lorraine which the Germans
annexed in 1871. The famous fortified city of Metz
is its capital, subordinate, however/ to Strasburg. In
ancient days Metz was the chief town of the Gallic
tribe of the Mediomatrici, and was known for a time
as Divodurum. However, the Romans themselves
subsequently called the place Metis and Metlis, after
its original inhabitants. Already in the fourth cen-
tury of our era Metz was a bishop's see, and between
511 and 843 it became the capital of the Frankish
kingdom of Austrasia (Eastern Gaul) where the Carlo-
vingian dynasty arose. At the partition of Charle-
ALSACE-LORRAINE 47
magne's empire (Verdun, 843) a kingdom was formed
in favour of his great-grandson, Lothair II, whose
father, Lothair I, sometime " Emperor of the West,"
had been vanquished at Fontenoy by his brothers,
Charles the Bald and Louis, otherwise Ludwig, the
Germanic. The new kingdom was called Lotharingia
after its sovereign, this being the only example of the
kind known in French history, other regions having
derived their names from the folk who dwelt in them,
as witness Brittany, Burgundy, Normandy, Gascony,
and Auvergne ; or, as in the case of Champagne,
Alsace, and the He-de-France, from physical circum-
stances ; or, again, from the presence of some city in
their midst, as is shown by Touraine (Tours), Anjou
(Angers), Forez (Feurs). Dauphine certainly took its
appellation from the title of its rulers, but only
Lorraine's came from an individual.
Metz afterwards passed to sundry German rulers,
but at the time of the Emperor Otho II (tenth century)
it became a free city of the Empire under its bishop.
Although it was situated in Lorraine, its bishops, who
were Princes of the Empire, never did homage to the
Dukes of Lorraine, the situation being the same at
Verdun and Toul, whose prelates also enjoyed a
quasi-independence, being subject only to the Diet
of the so-called Holy Roman Empire an institution
which differed greatly from the German Empire of
to-day. At last in 1552 the Three Bishoprics of
Lorraine were annexed by Henri II, son of Francis I
of France, and although 365 years have elapsed since
then Toul and Verdun have never since been torn
from French territory. Nor was Metz wrung from
France until 1871, when she had belonged to her for
more than three centuries. It is true that the
Emperor Charles V was extremely wrathful when he
48 THE TRUE STORY OF
heard of what Henri II had done, and that he besieged
Metz with an army of 100,000 men. But the defence
had been entrusted to the young and famous Francois
de Guise, who, six years later, to the great chagrin of
our first Mary, recovered Calais for the French crown.
Guise, who belonged to the ducal house of Lorraine,
inspired the burghers of Metz with confidence and
energy, and after efforts of two months' duration the
Emperor, having lost 30,000 of his men, was obliged
to raise the siege. " Fortune is a woman," said he
bitterly, " she favours only the young ! "
Metz stands at the confluence of the Seille and the
Moselle, which here throws out several arms. At the
census of 1910 the city had a population of over
79,000. It has changed greatly since the fateful
months of 1870 when Marshal Bazaine was invested
within its lines and, when listening to the voice of his
personal ambition, he " failed," as the judgment
pronounced upon him recorded, "to do what duty
and honour required." Beguiled by Prince Frederick
Charles of Prussia and Bismarck, he ended by
capitulating without having made a single really
strenuous effort to break through the German lines.
I shall have occasion to refer to him again. Here it
is merely en passant that I allude to his guilt. Metz,
I have said, has greatly altered since his time. Its
inner walls are now demolished, and new quarters
have sprung up, extending on the east beyond the
Seille to Plantieres and Queuleu, and on the south to
Montigny and Sablons. Further, many new buildings
have been erected in the older part of the city, though
this still retains a number of interesting houses,
including some which date from the thirteenth cen-
tury. The outskirts are studded with new German
forts, some of which are six miles or so from the city
ALSACE-LORRAINE 49
limits. Many of these forts are named after German
princes and commanders. For instance, there is
Kronprinz Fort, Prinz August von Wurttemberg Fort,
Graf Haeseler Fort, and so on. There is likewise a
so-called Bismarck Tower.
The huge central railway station, designed by a
Berlinese architect in the Romanesque style, dates
from 1908. Virtually all the French names of streets
have been Germanized. The old Place Royale has
become Kaiser Wilhelm Platz. The names of Marshal
Fabert and Marshal Belle-Isle, however, have been
suffered to remain, and the Germans have at least
had the decency to spare the statues of Ney and
Fabert, contenting themselves with setting up, by
way of counterpoise, some effigies of the present
Kaiser's " illustrious grandfather " and of Frederick
Charles, who so successfully bamboozled Bazaine.
The cathedral, a stately Gothic edifice dating partly
from the thirteenth, but only finished in the sixteenth
century, has been renovated in various ways. It was
reroofed with copper and iron in 1877, and at the
same period other restorations were begun. Much of
the new sculpture is ridiculous, however. For instance,
the Gothic portal of the south-west front has been
decorated with statues, one of which, set up in or
about 1896, represents the present German Emperor
the features are unmistakable and the fact is
explicitly acknowledged by the German guide-books
to Metz in the guise of the Prophet Daniel ! The
first thought that arises in this connexion is that
German idiocy could not well go further. Yet per-
haps the sculptor of this effigy had some imperfect
inkling of what time might bring to pass. He may,
forsooth, have dimly foreseen another Daniel coming
to judgment, another Daniel in the lions' den, another
50 THE TRUE STORY OF
Daniel reading the writing on the wall. But the end
of the story was not disclosed to him ; he knew not
that the fate of the Daniel he portrayed would differ
greatly from that of the Hebrew prophet that he
would give no heed to the writing, that judgment
would be pronounced against him, and that he would
not be spared by the lions.
In addition to the cathedral there are various
interesting buildings at Metz, such as the former
church of Notre Dame de la Ronde, which belonged
to the Knights Templars, the eighteenth-century
Hotel de Ville, the Palais de Justice, the fine public
library, and the municipal museum, where many
remains of the Gallo-Roman era have been preserved.
At no great distance from the city extend some of the
most famous battlefields of the Franco-German War
on the east Borny and Courcelles, and on the west
Saint-Privat, Mars-la-Tour, Gravelotte, Vionville, and
Rezonville. On an island cemetery, north of Metz,
are two monuments erected by the townsfolk in
1871, one to the French soldiers who died in the city
during the siege, and a smaller one to the officers who
fell in the outskirts. At the other localities I have
mentioned there are several memorials both to French
and to German combatants, as well as sundry tablets
ad majorem gloriam of William I, Moltke, and Bis-
marck. Another place of interest is the chateau of
Frescati, where the capitulation of Metz was signed on
October 27, 1870. Near it, prior to the present war,
stood some large sheds for German airships. I believe
that they have since been bombed.
Following the Moselle northward from Metz one
passes Maizires (now Ueckingen), a little town
with some blast-furnaces, before reaching Thionville
(Diedenhofen, over 14,000 inhabitants), which is the
ALSACE-LORRAINE 51
chief centre of metallurgical industry in the annexed
part of Lorraine, and also an extremely important rail-
way junction, whither lines converge from Metz,
Treves, Luxemburg, and Longuyon. Vauban fortified
Thionville, which in his time was accounted quite a
strong place, but in 1903 his works were razed by the
Germans, who have demolished many other anti-
quated fortifications elsewhere. However, Sarrebourg
or Saarburg on the Saar not the town of that name
across the frontier of Rhenish Prussia, but one in the
south of the annexed part of Lorraine still retains
its old gates and ramparts. There is some contention
that this place, now a town of 10,000 people, was the
Pons Saravi of the Antoninian itinerary, though
Saarbriicken, a Prussian possession, where the hos-
tilities of 1870 virtually began,* also claims the
classical name. In the Middle Ages, when Saarburg
belonged to the Bishops of Metz, some Lombards
settled there, and the town became a noted place for
commercial intercourse between France and Germany.
The Bishops afterwards ceded this possession to the
Duchy of Lorraine, whence it passed, also by cession,
to France in 1661. The town was then partially
rebuilt by Louis XIV.
Several other localities derive their names from
the River Saar on which they stand. For instance,
there is Saarlouis, the birthplace of Marshal Ney,
which Prussia wrung from France after Waterloo,
and added to her Rhenish province. Just within the
Lorraine frontier stands Sarreguemines (Saargemund),
a town of over 15,000 inhabitants with important
brass foundries as well as factories making faience and
porcelain. At the railway station here some German
* Napoleon Ill's young son, the Prince Imperial, received on that occasion
the " baptism of fire."
52 THE TRUE STORY OF
railways are linked to those of the Reichsland system
in such wise as to make the place particularly impor-
tant in war-time. South of Sarreguemines or Saarge-
mund one finds the little towns of Saaralben and
Saarunion, each inhabited by some 3000 or 4000
people, whilst, more southward still, going towards
Saarburg, is Fenestrange (Finstingen), a yet smaller
but an ancient place with the remains of two feudal
castles.
North-west of Sarreguemines stands Forbach
(10,000 inhabitants), where large papier-mache works
used to exist. On a height rising above the town are
the ruins of its feudal castle ; and in the distance one
can see the Spicheren or Spichererberg, a steep and
sparsely wooded acclivity where the French under
General Frossard entrenched themselves in August
1870. They were dislodged, however, by the Germans,
this being one of the first reverses suffered by the
French at the outset of the war.
The last slopes of the Vosges, separating Lorraine
from Alsace, extend in a north-easterly direction.
Hereabouts, just within Alsace and at the entry of
the pleasant valley of Falkenstein, will be found
Niederbronn, which I ought to have mentioned
sooner. It is one of the ten or twelve spas of the
Reichsland, and its waters are prescribed for com-
plaints of the liver as well as for scrofula and lymphatic
affections. In the eighteenth century the lordship of
Niederbronn belonged to Baron Dietrich, Mayor of
Strasburg, to whom I have previously referred. On
the Lorraine side of the Vosgian slopes, and near the
German frontier, stands Bitche (Bitsch), which has
twice had the honour of keeping the Prussians at bay
first, in 1793 when an inhabitant gave warning of
their approach by setting his house on fire; and,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 53
secondly, in 1870 when, like Belfort, Bitche held out
until the end of the war. Only the annexation gave
this gallant little place, now one of 4000 souls, to
Germany, and some years ago the Germans revenged
themselves in a peculiarly characteristic fashion for
the resistance offered to their arms. Bitche rejoiced
in a statue of Lorraine's most glorious child, the
immortal Maid, Joan of Arc. One morning, however,
it was taken down and carted away, and in its place
was raised a statue of William I, German Kaiser by
the grace of Bismarck !
Some miles south of Bitche, in a well-wooded part
of the Vosgian spurs on the Lorraine side, is Petite-
Pierre (rechristened Liitzelstein), which was formerly
fortified. It possessed little or no garrison in 1870,
and therefore had to surrender. The Germans after-
wards demolished its defences. More southward yet,
and on a barren, rocky plateau, stands another
fortress of the old Lorraine Phalsbourg (now Pfalz-
burg), the scene of one of Erckmann-Chatrian's
famous stories. Twice was it besieged in the time of
Napoleon, first in 1814, and next in the following
year ; and on each occasion it offered a desperate
resistance. Nor did Phalsbourg belie its reputation in
1870, but held out right doughtily for four months, in
spite of bombardment and conflagration. Nowadays,
no doubt, Vauban's fortifications could not have
offered anything like the same resistance. At the
present time Phalsbourg is a town of about 3700
people.
On the south-western side of the annexed part of
Lorraine that is, near the French frontier in the direc-
tion of Nancy will be found the towns of Chateau-
Salins (Salzburg) and Dieuze, both of which are
associated with salt. The salt deposits of this district
54 ALSACE-LORRAINE
have certainly been worked since the eleventh century,
and it has been held that they were known to the
Romans. Chateau-Salins counted in 1910 less than
2500 inhabitants, but Dieuze had nearly 6000, having
progressed whilst its neighbour was declining. Both
towns are situated in the Valley of the Seille, which
emerges from a great mere called the Etang de Lindre.
The water covers at times an expanse of over 1600
acres, and has an average depth of about ten feet.
Every three years, however, a part of the land is
drained and cultivated with remarkable results.
Ill
ALSATIAN HISTORY
(FROM EARLY TIMES TO THE TREATY OF WESTPHALIA)
Primitive Man in Alsace : The Celts of Caesar's Time : Early German
Incursions : Caesar and Ariovistus : Roman Defences of Alsace : The
Alemanni : Rome and the German Invaders : Alsace abandoned by
the Empire : Vandal, Burgundian, and Hunnish Invasions : Alsace
under the Merovingian and Carlovingian Franks : The Disruption of
Charlemagne's Empire : Alsace under German Rule : Dukes, Land-
graves, and Landvogts : The Robber Knights : The Free Cities and
the Decapolis League : Enguerrand de Coucy in Alsace : The Rhenish
Confederation : The Hapsburgs and Alsace : The Thirty Years' War :
The Swedes abandon Alsace to France : The Province ceded to
Louis XIV by Austria : Assent of the Alsatians.
THE history of Alsac begins with the advent of the
Romans in that region, but it is held by scientists
that the country was inhabited already during the
latter part of the pleistocene or quaternian age.
Rather more than half a century ago portions of a
human skull of the dolichocephalic type, recalling the
skulls of the Emps grotto and the Neanderthal, were
found at Eguisheim, near Colmar, and on the same
spot at the same time were discovered a tooth of the
Elephas primogenius, otherwise the mammoth, to-
gether with a knife and an arrow-head of silex.
These discoveries were made in a bed of the clay,
usually called loess, deposited by glaciers of Alpino-
Rhenish origin ; and the conclusion at which the
learned men of the time arrived was that the human
species existed in Alsace at the diluvian period follow-
ing the glacial age, and was contemporaneous with
55
56 THE TRUE STORY OF
the aforesaid Elephas primogenius, the Rhinoceros
tichorhinus, the Ursus spelceus, and the Felis spelcea
bones and teeth of all those animals having been
discovered in Alsace in soil of the same character.
Hundreds of objects in shivered or split and also
polished stone have likewise been found in one or
another part of the region, showing that its inhabi-
tants passed through a stone age, and, judging by
the spots where most discoveries were made, that
these inhabitants dwelt preferentially on slopes over-
looking rivers and meres. Deposits of loess are
found in various parts of Alsace, notably in districts
extending from the River Bruch on the south to
Niederbronn on the north, and again towards the
Swiss frontier on the south. In the real mountain
and plain regions, however, only few split or polished
flints have been discovered. The lower ground at
the period referred to was indeed still under water,
and therefore uninhabited. The waters did not
subside until the bronze and iron ages, and only
then did man begin to spread through this part of
the country. As for Lorraine, or at least the part
of it annexed by Germany, it would not seem to have
been inhabited at as early a period as Alsace.
Whatever may have been the origin of the so-
called Pagans' Walls and Castles, there are certainly
a number of dolmen, peulven, cromlechs, etc., in the
Vosgian districts, indicating the presence there of a
Celtic population at an early date. Livy and Caesar
are the first to mention the inhabitants of the region,
the former asserting that as far back as the Roman
year 163 that is, about 591 B.C. large bands of them
made their way across the Rhine and through the
Black Forest to the Danube, on whose banks they
established themselves. That is more or less legen-
ALSACE-LORRAINE 57
dary, and may have little if any foundation in fact.
Caesar, on the other hand, when he first became
acquainted with Alsace, found it inhabited by Celtic
tribes, which included, in the north (Metz and most
of the Moselle country), the Mediomatrici and the
Treviri, after whom the city of Treves is named.
Southward dwelt the Rauraci and the Sequani.
Along the Rhine, in parts of Upper Alsace, there
was also a Helvetian tribe, called the Tulingi. At
this period the first century before Christ many
of the Mediomatrici Celts were constantly assailed
by a Germanic people called the Tribocci, who flocked
across the Rhine, compelled in a measure to quit
their own lands by the constant incursions and con-
quests of another German tribe, the Suevi, from
whom Swabia has derived its name, though the
Suevi would appear to have had a more northern
habitat at an earlier date. Some of the Mediomatrici
Celts were gradually compelled to retreat before the
Tribocci as far even as the Vosgian slopes.
Now at last it happened that war broke out
between the Sequanian Celts and the ^Edui another
tribe of Gallia Celtica, dwelling in a region which is
now represented by the departments of the Cote-
d'Or, the Nievre, the Saone-et-Loire, and the Rhone.
The JMuans were a powerful race, and the Sequanians
and the Averni (of Auvergne), with whom they were
allied, finding themselves hard pressed, eventually
called in the foreigner to help them. The foreigner
in question was a certain Ariovistus, otherwise, it is
said, Ehrenvest a compound German word signify-
ing " firm in honour " and he was the chieftain of
various Germanic hordes, principally, it is asserted,
Suevi or Swabians. According to Caesar, Ariovistus
began by providing 15,000 men, but ultimately
58 THE TRUE STORY OF
120,000 poured down upon the ^Eduans, attracted
by the abundance which was found in Gaul and the
prospect of appropriating its rich lands in which
respect they did not differ from their descendants,
the Germans of to-day.
They certainly defeated the ^Edui, who lost,
Caesar tells us, all their nobles and councillors in the
struggle, and had their cavalry annihilated. But
the invaders also ravaged and pillaged Upper Alsace,
through which they passed, and after claiming a
third part of the Sequanian lands as recompense for
their services, their appetite increased and they
demanded a second third. Thereupon the Sequanians,
tardily repenting of their folly in soliciting the help
of the unscrupulous Germans, became reconciled to
the JEdui, and Caesar's assistance was solicited.
Before taking action the Roman general sent a mes-
sage to Ariovistus requesting him to designate a
suitable spot for an interview. The German chieftain
replied that if he had needed anything of Caesar he
would have gone to him, and that it was for Caesar
to come to him if he desired anything of him. Ario-
vistus's next proceeding was to descend on Vesontio,
now Besan9on, and attempt its capture. Foiled in
that endeavour, he consented to an interview with
Caesar, and when it took place his speech was every
whit as bombastic and as mendacious as any of the
orations or proclamations that have emanated from
the present Kaiser. Tall and full-bodied, the leader
of the great hordes from across the Rhine seems to
have regarded with contempt the short and slender
Roman and his far from numerous legions. It was
an early illustration of that Teutonic conceit which
prompted Germany's twentieth-century War Lord to
refer to the contemptible little British Army. The
ALSACE-LORRAINE 59
sequel taught Ariovistus his mistake. He had to
retire before Caesar's advance, and at last, after he
had fixed his camp at Colmar, a great battle was
fought on the plain between that town and Ensis-
heim a tradition says near Rougemont, on the
little River Saint Nicholas and the Germanic hordes
were cut to pieces, 90,000 dead or dying being left
upon the field. The remainder fled precipitately
across the Rhine, and Ariovistus and his two wives
were either drowned in that river or perished during
the previous fighting.
For a time this victory, achieved in the year
58 B.C., annihilated all Germanic power in Alsace,
which became a dependency of Rome and a bulwark
against the German barbarians. In the following
year the whole territory, which had belonged to the
Mediomatrici Celts before the irruptions of the
Tribocci, was annexed, and Caesar placed Labienus
(father or grandfather of the famous orator and
historian of that name) in charge of it. Nevertheless,
from time to time bands of Germans still crossed the
Rhine, and the Romans endeavoured to civilize them.
Under Augustus certain lands were assigned to the
Tribocci, who ended by clustering around Strasburg.
A little later, during the same sovereign's reign
(A.D. 9), occurred the memorable defeat of Varus by
the ambitious German chieftain Arminius or Her-
mann. Subsequently that defeat was partially avenged
by Tiberius and Germanicus, and Hermann, having
aspired to autocratic sway, was ultimately assas-
sinated by some of his own countrymen. Later still,
in Vespasian's time (A.D. 70), came the rebellion of
the Batavian leader Civilis against Rome, and some
of the Alsatian tribes participated in this affair. But
the Sequanians remained faithful to the Empire,
60 THE TRUE STORY OF
and after Cerealis had defeated Civilis, fire and sword
were carried through the rebellious districts of
Alsace.
Under the sovereignty of the Roman Emperors,
the region, as we now know it, was divided between
two provinces, Germania prima (capital, Mayence),
in which Lower Alsace was included, and Maxima
Sequanorum (capital, Besan^on), to which Upper
Alsace was attached. In order to restrain the constant
incursions of the Germans the Empire's frontier was
fortified from the Danube and along the Schwarz-
wald chain to the Ochsenwald. The Rhine front
was protected by numerous castella and castra, such
as those of Augusta Rauracorum (now the village of
Augst), near Basle, Mons Brisaci (Vieux-Brisach),
Argentoraria (Horburg, near Colmar), Helvetus (near
Benfeld), Brocomagus (Brumath), and Saletis (Seltz).
Farther away from the river there was Tres Tabernae
(Saverne). Winter camps and quarters were numerous.
Strasburg, then called Argentoratum, was strongly
fortified and garrisoned by the second, fourth, and
eighth legions. It enjoyed at the time a reputation
for the manufacture of weapons of war, and may be
regarded as the chief Roman arsenal in this part of
Gaul. The great road which passed from Italy
through Switzerland was extended all along the
Rhine, thus connecting the river fortresses which
have been enumerated, arid from it diverged two
western roads, one running towards Montbeliard, and
the other crossing the Vosges by the Col Bonhomme.
La Poultroie in this neighbourhood derived its name
from Petrosa via. Further, the Theodosian Table
shows that there was a great road running from
Strasburg to Metz by way of Saverne, Sarrebourg,
and Dieuze.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 61
As time elapsed Alsace became more and more
civilized, and its legendary lore seems to indicate
that Christianity spread to this part of Gaul already
in the third century. Nevertheless the German
attempts upon the province were constantly repeated.
In the century we have mentioned trouble began
with a confederation of Germanic tribes located
principally between the Upper Rhine and the Neckar,
though some of them, it seems, pertained to the
Danubian region. These people became known in
Gaul as the Alemanni, an appellation derived from
the German words Alle Manner (all men). Trans-
mitted through the ages this name has always served
among the French, in the forms Allemagne and Alle-
mand, to designate Germany and the German people.
The Italians, moreover, call Germany Alemagna.
Very numerous and warlike, the Alemanni repeatedly
attempted to seize Alsace, and again and again the
Roman Emperors or their lieutenants had to drive
them back across the Rhine. For instance, in the
year 217 Caracalla had to discharge that duty, in
237 it was the turn of Maximinus, in 265 that of
Posthumus, a little later that of Aurelian, and in 281
that of Probus to do so. The last-named did not
mince matters, and even as to-day in rural France
each person who brings proof that he has killed a
wolf is entitled to a pecuniary reward from his munici-
pality, so this Roman Emperor ordained that every
man who brought in the head of a German invader
should receive a piece of gold.
Yet still the German attempts continued. In
287 the intruders were beaten back by Maximianus
Hercules, in 301 by Constantius Chlorus, and in 304
by Constantine, afterwards the Great. At the time
of his son, Constans II, the barbarians at last secured
62 THE TRUE STORY OF
an opportunity to seize Alsace, for after the defeat
of the usurper Magnentius the Emperor utilized them
to attack Decentius, one of Magnentius's kinsmen.
Thereupon a German host under a certain Chnodomir
crossed the Rhine, and after routing Decentius,
captured and pillaged forty-five nourishing localities,
including the towns of Strasburg, Brumath, Seltz,
and Saverne. Thus in the years 353-4 they virtually
made themselves masters of Alsace. As they refused
to depart Constans dispatched the future Emperor
Julian against them, and the Battle of Strasburg,
fought in 357, compelled them to flee across the
Rhine. To prevent, or at least to delay, future
incursions Julian invaded their territory and again
punished them severely. Ten years of comparative
quietude then ensued, but during the winter of 367
that is, in the first Valentinian's time they crossed
over the ice-bound Rhine, fell upon the Roman
garrisons and defeated them. Once more they were
expelled, and the river fortresses were rebuilt or
repaired by Valentinian's orders. In 378, however,
they came yet again, but were soundly beaten by
Gratian near Colmar. Thus things continued until
in or about the year 403, at the time of Honorius,
Rome abandoned Alsace to its fate.
This retirement has been related in conflicting
ways. According to one account Stilicho, Honorius's
general and also his father-in-law, wilfully withdrew
from Alsace, dismantling all its fortresses, in order to
give free admission to the Vandals, the Alans, and
the Suevi or Swabians. Stilicho, be it noted, was
of Vandal origin. The other account is more in
keeping both with the eulogium of Stilicho, penned
by Claudian of Alexandria, and with ascertained
historical facts. It is that the general was constrained
ALSACE-LORRAINE 63
to withdraw the legions from Alsace in order to
contend as he very ably did against Alaric and
the Visigoths in Italy. On the other hand, the
Vandals and the Alans certainly availed themselves
of the departure of the Roman soldiers. In 408
they overran Alsace, sacked and burnt its towns,
demolished the Roman fortresses and monuments,
and virtually destroyed all industry, commerce, and
agriculture, in such wise that within a twelvemonth
the province had become a waste.
About the same time as the Vandals and the
Alans other invaders appeared the Burgundians,
who, according to Pliny, were akin to the Vandals
and the Goths. Other writers, Ammianus Marcel-
linus and Orosius, claim, however, that they sprang
from a Roman colony established in Central Ger-
many some centuries previously; but, on the other
hand, the Island of Rligen, in the Baltic, was once
called Burgundaland and is known to have been
inhabited by a Slavonic race. There may be some
connexion between those facts. In any case, what-
ever their origin was, the Burgundians gradually
approached the Rhine, and at one time Valentinian
urged them to attack and dispossess the Alemanni
settled there. In 407 they at last crossed the river
and appeared in Alsace, but were subsequently
defeated both by the Huns and by Aetius (Attila's
victorious antagonist), whereupon, going southward,
they entered Savoy, and then spread westward to
the region of the Rhone.
Since the departure of the Roman legions Alsace
had become, as it were, an open door by which any
barbarian race might penetrate into Gaul. The Huns
naturally availed themselves of this facility for in-
vasion on setting out, during the first half of the
64 THE TRUE STORY OF
fifth century, to overrun the Gallo-Roman provinces.
When in 451 Attila's innumerable host was at last
defeated on the plain of Chalons- sur-Marne it was
confronted by three forces, one of Gallo-Romans
commanded by Aetius, one of Visigoths under their
King Theodoric, and one of Franks, said to have been
led by Merovius, from whom the Merovingian dynasty
derived its name. These Franks had previously
descended upon Gaul, and Aetius, though glad of
their help on the Campi Catalaunici, repeatedly con-
tended against them. They were divided into two
branches, the Salic or Salian branch, which had come,
it is said, from the vicinity of the Yssel, an arm of
the Rhine flowing into the Zuider Zee, and another,
the Ripuarian branch, located near the Rhine itself.
There has been much speculation as to the origin of
this people. They were one of the Germanic races,
but it seems probable that they were more akin to
the Batavians (or, as we should now say, the Dutch)
than to the other German tribes, whom they certainly
did not love, as was shown by frequent wars.
Fierce and barbarous as these Franks first were,
they gradually assimilated what yet remained of
Gallo-Roman civilization, and after becoming pre-
ponderant in Gaul, endeavoured, in spite of frequent
contests among themselves, to keep out all German
and other invaders. In 496 Clovis defeated the
Alemanni on the Rhine somewhere in the vicinity
of Tolbiac, now Zulpich, near Cologne but the
struggle appears to have continued intermittently
until 536, when the Alemanni had to acknowledge
Prankish supremacy and evacuate all Gallic territory
north of the wooded Eifel plateau, now in Rhenish
Prussia. Exceptions were made at the time in favour
of a few who were allowed to remain between the
ALSACE-LORRAINE 65
Eifel and the Forest of Haguenau upon undertaking
to pay a tax. Others dwelt, comparatively free, in
the southern dioceses of Strasburg, Basle, and Con-
stance. Frankish immigrants settled among the
Alemanni and the remnants of the Celtic and Gallo-
Roman population, and some measure of law and
order slowly began to prevail.
It was the Frankish custom for a father to divide
his possessions among his children, and thus, under
the Merovingian dynasty, the Gallic territory was
repeatedly split up into various kingdoms. Alsace
followed the fortunes of that of Austrasia (the eastern
kingdom), which was constantly at war with that
of Neustria. In or about 630 there sprang up a line
of Dukes of Alsace, but the dukedom was only a
benefice and not hereditary, successive Kings of the
Merovingian race appointing at their pleasure a new
duke whenever any holder of the dignity died. Accord-
ing to some accounts it was Charles Mart-el, mayor of
the palace at the time of Clothaire IV, who, becoming
alarmed by the increasing power of the Alsatian
dukes, suppressed them and instituted in their place
two counts, one for Upper and the other for Lower
Alsace. Another version asserts that this change
was effected by Pepin, the first of the Carlo vingians.
But it appears certain that there were already such
counts or landgraves at the time of the early dukes,
and that they acted as deputy-governors under the
latter. When the dukes were abolished the land-
graves became direct officials of the King, and were
charged with the administration of justice, the collec-
tion of the royal revenues, and the supervision of
churches and conventual establishments.
Alsace is said to have continued prosperous until
the death of Charlemagne. Agriculture extended, and
66 THE TRUE STORY OF
there was considerable trade in timber and wine.
The Romanized Celts, dispossessed of most of their
former lands, dwelt chiefly in the valleys of the
Vosges and among the hill-side pasturages. Even
to-day a Romanesque dialect will be found in these
parts. The rest of the province was peopled by
Franks and Germans, and even as a Frankish dialect
prevailed in Lower Alsace so an Alemanian one
predominated in the Upper districts.
It was on the Ochsenfeld, in Alsace, that in 810
Charlemagne's son, Louis le Debonnaire, was dethroned
by his rebellious children with the connivance of the
crafty Pope Gregory IV, who, though described in
the histories of the Church as a learned and pious
man, did not shrink from abetting the enterprise to
dethrone and despoil Charlemagne's heir and suc-
cessor. For a moment Louis' son Lothair succeeded
him, but Lothair 's brothers rebelled, and after Lothair
had been defeated at Fontenoy-en-Puisaye (841)
Louis was momentarily reinstated. Two years later
Charlemagne's empire was dismembered by the famous
Treaty of Verdun. By this convention Louis le
Debonnaire' s son Louis took all Germany as far as
the Rhine, on which account he became known
historically as Louis the Germanic. His brother
Charles, afterwards known as the Bald, secured
France within limits formed by the Scheldt, the
Meuse, the Saone, and the Rhone ; whilst Eastern
France, inclusive of Alsace, and some Italian posses-
sions were assigned to the son of the previously
defeated Lothair. Shortly before the latter died in
855 at a monastery at Treves, Lothair II assumed the
title of King of Lotharingia or Lorraine, a$ I have
already explained.*
* See pp. 10, 47, ante.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 67
In 867 this Lothair bestowed the title of Duke of
Alsace on a natural son of his, called Hugh ; but
two years later he died, and in 870 a Franco- German
treaty was signed at Mersen, by which Alsace was
transferred to Louis the Germanic. Hugh was there-
upon debarred from exercising authority, but after
Louis' death in 876 he regained it for a short time.
Louis' son and successor, Charles the Fat, thereupon
seized him, had his eyes put out, and shut him up
in the Abbey of St. Gall.
Further contestations arose. Charles the Fat
ended, however, by uniting for a few years the Carlo-
vingian possessions France, Germany, and Italy
under his sway. Then the French deposed him, and
Eudes (not Hugh) Capet reigned over them in his
stead. In Germany Charles the Fat was followed by
Arnulf, who was crowned as Emperor in 896. He
had bestowed the kingdom of Lorraine, which again
included Alsace, on a natural son called Swentibold,*
who when a conspiracy broke out to reinstate the
blinded Hugh committed him again to durance, and,
in accordance with the Frankish custom, caused his
head to be shaved, as one unworthy of reigning. In
Alsace-Lorraine Swentibold' s exactions and cruelty
were so great that after his father's death the people
rose against him and recognized another of Arnulf's
sons, Louis the Child, as sovereign. Swentibold was
killed in some fighting in Westphalia in the year 900,
and Louis the Child died eleven years later, whereupon,
Charles the Simple of France took possession of
Alsace-Lorraine and came thither to be recognized
as sovereign. From the standpoint of heredity his
claim was indisputable, for he was descended from
Charlemagne, and the death of Louis the Child had
* Latinized both as Zventibuchus and as Centiboldus in ancient deeds.
68 THE TRUE STORY OF
extinguished the Carlovingian line in Germany, where
other houses now arose to the chief power. The
first of the new sovereigns in that country was
Conrad I, previously Duke of Franconia, and he
within a few months wrested Alsace-Lorraine from
Charles the Simple. But the inhabitants drove him
out and in 913 reinstated the French King. In
fact, it was only after the French had deposed Charles
the Simple in 923 he perished in captivity at Peronne
six years later and at the time of the Emperor Henry
the Fowler, that Alsace passed once more under German
sway.
Under earlier German rulers the province had
been administered by certain fiscal agents termed
nuntii camerce, whose exactions made them extremely
unpopular. Conrad, during his brief spell of authority
there, had appointed a Swabian lord as Duke, in
order that the country might be better governed.
Henry the Fowler followed this example, but it was
only in 1080, at the time of the Emperor Henry IV
(the adversary of the famous Hildebrand, otherwise
Pope Gregory VII), that the dukedom of Alsace
became a hereditary appanage of the house of
Hohenstaufen, and continued as such until the last
representative of that race, Conradin, suffered death
on the scaffold at Naples in 1268. Under the Hohen-
staufen Dukes of Alsace there were hereditary land-
graves of the Upper and Lower Divisions, the first
being appointed in 1138. These landgraves had no
territorial status, their functions were chiefly judicial,
and their courts of pleas were held in the open air
until a so-called " regency v was established at
Ensisheim. In Lower Alsace the landgraviate functions
were exercised by several successive Counts of Wrerth,
but in 1359 that county and the lordship of Erstein
ALSACE-LORRAINE 69
were purchased by John of Lichtenberg, Bishop of
Strasburg, for 32,000 gold florins. Previously he
had become Imperial Landvogt, or high bailiff, in
Upper Alsace, and after his death one finds the
Bishops of Strasburg styling themselves Landgraves
of Alsace, and convoking and presiding the States of
Lower Alsace down to the time when German rule
ceased there. Before the Strasburg prelates acquired
the landgraviate dignity its holders included, apart
from the Counts of Wcerth, a number of other petty
nobles, and also some high and puissant personages.
Among the sons of the early dukes who were often
invested with the functions was a certain Erchanger,
or Erchangarius, who became the father of the
Empress Ricardis, the repudiated wife of Charles
the Fat, a legend respecting whom I related in a
previous chapter.* In Upper Alsace the first land-
grave appears to have been Wernher of Hapsburg
(1168), and several other members of his line took
that title after abandoning the one of Count of
Nordgau, which was last used, apparently, by the
Emperor Henry IV of the Saxon line. Our Cceur de
Lion's gaoler, Henry VI of the Hohenstaufen house
called the Cruel, or the Sharp styled himself Land-
gravius Alsatise in a deed of 1192. The German
term Landgrafschaft having no equivalent in French,
Charles the Rash of Burgundy, who for a short time
held the province, substituted the word vicomte, and
even gave Alsace the name of Auxois.
Of lesser rank than the landgraves were the
officials known by the name of Landvogt. They
appear to have been high bailiffs, or stewards, acting
on behalf of the landgraves, more particularly when
the latter were also Holy Roman Emperors. Among
* See p. 38, ante.
70 THE TRUE STORY OF
these Landvogts were some Bishops of Strasburg, some
Counts of Ferrette and Hohenberg, some Bavarian
dukes, and Austrian dukes and archdukes, as well
as sundry Burgraves of Magdeburg. After Alsace
passed to France in the time of Louis XIV, that
sovereign took to himself the title of Landgrave of
Alsace, and at first conferred the landvogtei, or bail-
liage, on Henri Count d'Harcourt of the house of
Lorraine. A little later Cardinal Mazarin and his
nephew-in-law, La Meilleraye Duke Mazarin and
husband of Hortense Mancini, became Landvogts.
Some members of the house of Chatillon followed
them, and finally, just before the great Revolution,
the famous Duke de Choiseul held this dignity.
From the foregoing it will be seen that Alsace
was ruled at various periods by dukes, counts, land-
graves, or chief justices, and Landvogts, otherwise
high stewards or bailiffs. The authority of these
personages was often more nominal than real in early
times. Soon after the feudal system originated quite
a number of counts, barons, and so forth, many from
across the Rhine, sprang up, some of them having
extensive domains, and others owning little beyond
the stone walls of their hill-side towers. Whilst the
former were prosperous and afforded protection to
their respective vassals and serfs, the latter subsisted
by sheer robbery. Such was long the case all over
the so-called Holy Roman Empire, throughout whose
former Teutonic territory may still be found linger-
ing many a legend of the old-time robber knights,
the Landschaden the " Banes of the Land " as
they became called. Commerce was throttled by
these predatory " nobles " who " lived from the
saddle," and who, as in the case of Eberhard of
Wiirttemberg, entitled themselves "friends of God
ALSACE-LORRAINE 71
and enemies of all." Few roads were safe in their
days. Travelling merchants went their way in fear
and trembling, constantly repeating in their prayers :
" From Kockeritze and Ltideritze,
From Krocker, Kracht, and Itzenplitze,
Good Lord deliver us I "
It was for purposes of self-defence against the
enterprises of these plundering castellans, from whom
many high and mighty folk of present-day Germany
are descended, that several towns freed themselves
and banded themselves together in confederations.
Nowhere else were the so-called robber knights more
plentiful than in Alsace, where they throve particu-
larly by intercepting trade between Germany and
France, and contrived, often for years, to secure
impunity among their Vosgian fastnesses to which
circumstance may be traced the origin of the term
" Alsatia," given by us originally to the lawbreakers'
sanctuary of Whitefriars in London, and afterwards
employed as a generic name to designate any rookery
of dishonest and unscrupulous folk.
In 1255 the chief Alsatian centres joined the
so-called Confederation of the Rhine, which included
some three-score cities or towns allied together for
purposes of self-defence. Already in the latter half
of the previous century the Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa, one of whose favourite places of residence
was Haguenau, in Alsace, had made various Alsatian
townships " free imperial cities," and granted them
a number of privileges. Strasburg became a " free
city of the Empire " (freie Reichstadt), and in July
1205 (one account says 1201) the Emperor Philip
(of Swabia) advanced Strasburg by diploma to the
rank of an immediate city of the Empire unmittelbare
Reichstadt. Under Frederick II that is, about 1219
72 TIJE TRUE STORY OF
the city's privileges were increased by another charter.
Thus it was gradually freed from the tyrannical rule
of the officials appointed by its bishops, and secured,
in addition to municipal autonomy, rights of high
and low justice wdthin its territory. The city's
last- mentioned charter sanctioned a senate of twelve
members, partly nobles and partly burgesses.
This state of affairs was by no means pleasing to
the Strasburgian prelates, and one of them, Walter
of Geroldseck, amidst the confusion which prevailed
about the time of the last Hohenstaufen,* endeavoured
to destroy the city's autonomy and extinguish its
rights. The better to accomplish his design he ex-
communicated the inhabitants ; nevertheless they
resisted him, chose the famous Rudolph of Hapsburg
to command them, and at a battle fought at Ober-
hausbergen on March 8, 1262, signally defeated the
episcopal forces the bishop's brother with seventy
knights and ninety others of noble rank being taken
* That is, Conradin, who in endeavouring to reconquer the Kingdom of
the Two Sicilies was vanquished at Tagliacozzo and, although only sixteen
years of age, was sent to the scaffold by Charles of Anjou, brother of the
French King, Saint Louis. The Sicilian kingdom had come to the Hohen-
staufen emperors by the marriage of Conradin's grandfather, the Emperor
Henry Vi, with the Princess Constantia of the Sicilian Norman dynasty
which followed the Saracen lule. Henry, however, in order to assert his
" rights," had to conquer Calabria and Sicily by force, and, as Gibbon put
it, " against the unanimous wish of a free people." What the Sicilians
thought of the irruption of the Germans is shown by the writings of Hugo
Falcandus, the *' Tacitus of the Middle Ages " : " Constantia, the daughter
of Sicily," said he, " nursed from her cradle in the pleasures and plenty,
and educated in the arts and manners of this fortunate island, departed long
since to enrich the Barbarians with our treasures, and she now returns with
her savage allies to contaminate the beauties of her ancient parental land.
Already do I behold the swarms of angry Barbarians ! Our opulent cities,
places nourishing after a long peace, arc shaken with fear, desolated by
slaughter, consumed by rapine, and polluted by intemperance and lust.
I see our citizens massacred or reduced to bondage, and our virgins and
our matrons raped." Had Falcandus lived eight centuries later he could
not have written differently of the Germans in Belgium and Northern
France and other lands also.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 73
prisoners by the burghers. Eleven years later, wl
Rudolph of Hapsburg became Emperor, he conf rned
all Strasburg's rights and privileges.
A long period of contention between tlie city's
old patrician families and its burgesses and artisans
ensued ; but the Strasburgian Government assumed
by degrees a more and more democratic, in fact a
republican, character, which culminated at last in
1482 at the time of Frederick the Pacific in a
famous charter called the Schwaerbrief. It took this
name from the provision it contained that once every
year one and all should swear obedience to it. The
constitution confirmed by this charter subsisted with
very few changes down to the time of the French
Revolution, for it was respected by even so imperious
a monarch as Louis XIV. The municipal Senate
consisted at first of forty-seven members that is,
eight nobles, fourteen burgesses, and twenty-five
artisans the full number afterwards being reduced
to thirty members, ten nobles, and twenty representa-
tives of the guilds or corporations. At the head of
the administration were two Stettmeister (joint mayors,
so to say) and an Ammeister, or chief officer of the
guilds. The number of guilds was limited to twenty,
each of which chose fifteen representatives known as
echevins. These (300 altogether) formed a Grand
Council. One may take the Senate as an Upper
House or Court of Aldermen, and the Grand Council
as a Lower House or Common Council. The executive
was composed of three Chambers or Committees known
respectively as the Thirteen, the Fifteen, and the
Twenty-one. The members appear to have been
named for life, one-third of them being nobles, and
two-thirds belonging to the other classes. The Thir-
teen had charge of the city's Foreign Policy, the
74 THE TRUE STORY OF
Fifteen dealt with Home Affairs, and the Twenty-one
were in charge of religious and judicial matters. The
organization may seem to have been somewhat intri-
cate, but it was regarded in the old days as a master-
piece of political wisdom, and Erasmus remarked
that the little Republic of Strasburg was the ideal
of its kind.
I have written at some length on this subject in
view of some of the latter-day pretensions of Germany
respecting Strasburg. The city emerged from the
Middle Ages essentially as a Republic, acknowledging
no personal rule whether on the part of its Bishop,
or any Alsatian Landgrave, or any German Emperor,
or, later, any King of France. If its constitution
was somewhat complicated, this was devised precisely
to prevent any one man from attempting despotic
rule. It may be added that the constitution of
Strasburg served as a model for several other cities
in the region of the Rhine.
It is now necessary to revert to earlier times.
During the interregnum which elapsed between the
death of Rudolph of Hapsburg and the accession of
Adolphus of Nassau (1291-92) the Alsatians clergy,
nobles, and burgesses made an attempt to sever
their connexion with the Empire and secure absolute
independence. They were not sufficiently powerful,
however, to effect their object ; but in 1354, with
the assent of the Emperor Charles IV (of the house
of Luxemburg), ten of the free towns Colmar,
Haguenau, Kayserberg, Mulhouse, Miinster, Obernai,
Rosheim, Schlestadt, Tiirkheim, and Weissenburg
formed for mutual support a league known as the
Decapolis. Unfortunately the contracting parties
constituting this Confederation were often remiss in
fulfilling their obligations notably in regard to Mul-
ALSACE-LORRAINE 75
house, which, being coveted by some of the Haps-
burgs and others, vainly appealed to its allies for
assistance on two principal occasions during the
fifteenth century. Mulhouse ultimately turned for
help to the Swiss, and, in gratitude to them, joined
their Confederation in 1513, in such wise that it
afterwards took no part in Alsatian affairs, and even
escaped annexation by Louis XIV. Indeed, only
in 1798 did this democratic little State, for such it
was, sever of its own free will its connexion with
Switzerland and give itself over to the French Republic.
The withdrawal of Mulhouse from the Decapolis
League (into which, by the way, Strasburg, satisfied
with its own independence, never entered) led to
the League's decline and demise in the course of the
sixteenth century.
The famous Black Plague, of which Boccaccio has
left us such a vivid account in the " Decameron "
in Italy alone during seven months of the year 1348
it carried off 120,000 persons, including Boccaccio's
Fiammetta soon spread to France, passed through
the Rhone region, where Petrarch's Laura succumbed
to it, and, in the following year, made its appearance
as far north as Alsace. Strasburg did not escape
infection, 16,000 of its inhabitants perished, and the
survivors, blindly accusing the Jews who dwelt
among them of being the authors of this pestilence,
fell upon them and are said to have put 2000 to death,
a number of these being burnt at the stake. Seven-
teen years later (1365) came a so-called " English
Invasion " of Alsace. The invaders were, however,
really mercenaries of all nations, desperadoes of some
of the so-called Great Companies at one time employed
by Edward III and the Black Prince, but dismissed
after the Peace of Bretigny. They ravaged the
76 THE TRUE STORY OF
Alsatian rural districts, and several towns found it
difficult to keep them at bay. For some years bands
of these soldiery roamed about the country, and in
1375 a large force of them, or others of a similar
stamp, was gathered together by a French noble
who suddenly laid claim to Alsace, Aargau, and Brisgau
the last named now a district of Baden.
The reader may remember that during the present
Great War the Germans wantonly destroyed, in the
vicinity of Soissons, one of the finest ruined feudal
castles of France, that of Coucy, the admiration of
archaeologists in modern times. Erected in the thir-
teenth century by Enguerrand III, Sire de Coucy,
this castle was partly blown up by Mazarin during
the second Fronde rebellion in 1652, and forty years
later its majestic circular keep (187 feet in height and
325 feet in circumference) was cleft from top to
bottom (though its walls were 34 feet thick) by the
shock of a great earthquake. Since then, until the
German barbarians came, Coucy had been but an
imposing picturesque ruin, without military import-
ance, but highly interesting as a memorial of feudal
times. I have recalled those facts because the noble
who laid claim to Alsace in 1375 was Enguerrand VII,
the last of the old Sires de Coucy. It will give an
idea of the position to which that house attained if
I mention that the mother of Enguerrand VII was
a sister of Duke Leopold of Austria, a granddaughter
of the Emperor Albert I, and a great-granddaughter
of the famous Rudolph of Hapsburg. It was by
virtue of this descent that Enguerrand laid claim to
the Hapsburg domains and rights in Alsace and other
parts. Enguerrand, moreover, had a Scottish grand-
mother, a daughter or sister of the first of the Baliols,
and, further, whilst he was residing in England as
ALSACE-LORRAINE 77
a hostage for King John of France, Edward III gave
him his daughter Isabella in marriage and conferred
on him the barony of Bedford and other lordships.
Such was the international grand seigneur who
suddenly descended upon Alsace with a number of
soldiers of fortune to enforce his claim to " his
mother's rights." His uncle, the Landgrave Duke
Leopold of Austria, was taken by surprise, but he
obtained assistance from the Sw T iss, and Enguerrand's
motley bands of mercenaries were worsted in various
encounters, with the result that the Pretender aban-
doned his claims upon being granted the lordships of
Baren and Nidau as fiches de consolation. Subse-
quently, the King of France being his suzerain,
Enguerrand fought (somewhat unwillingly) against
the English in various parts. He died, leaving two
daughters, one of whom conveyed the lordship of
Coucy to the house of Bar, whence it passed to
that of Luxemburg and ultimately to the French
crown.
I have had occasion more than once to refer to
the Hapsburg connexion with Alsace, and before
going further it is as well to explain matters rather
more clearly, particularly as it was the Austrian
house which ultimately ceded Alsace to France. It
may be said then that whilst the Hapsburg power in
the province began (as was mentioned on p. 69)
with the appointment of sundry members of the
family as landgraves under the emperors, it was
chiefly by the acquisition of the county of Ferrette
a locality situated in the extreme south of Alsace *
that this power was consolidated. Ferrette was first
held by a line of nobles originating with a certain
Frederick, son of Thierry or Theodoric I, Count of
* See p. 45, ante.
78 TrfE TRUE STORY OF
Bar, Mousson, and Montbeliard. Originally the county
of Ferrette included, besides that locality, both
Altkirch and Thann, and some villages now in Switzer-
land. In the thirteenth century the lordships of
Florimond and Rougemont were added to Ferrette,
and subsequently both Delle and Belfort passed to
the same house. The fourth of its counts, a certain
Ulrich, became involved in hostilities with one of
the Bishops of Strasburg, to whom he ended by
ceding Thann and a few other localities. The cession
was witnessed by Albert I of Austria, who, under
his father, the famous Emperor Rudolph, acted at
the time as Landgrave of Alsace, where the family
possessed some little lordships. Ultimately Albert I
also became Holy Roman Emperor. Now in 1275
Ulrich of Ferrette was succeeded by his son Theobald,
and in 1310 by his grandson Ulrich II, who at his
death was followed by his only child, a daughter
named Joan. She was married to another Albert of
Austria (who did not reign as Emperor), and to him,
in March 1324, she conveyed her inheritance, he
afterwards styling himself, " Dei Gratia Dux Austriae,
Landgravius Alsatise, nee non Comes Phirretarum."
Joan's marriage was a scandalous affair, for her
husband was notoriously impotent. She favoured
several lovers, by one or another of whom she had
three sons, named respectively Rudolph, Albert, and
Leopold. In this wise she transmitted through the
centuries a strain of bastardy to the Austrian Imperial
House. Joan was also privy, in 1347, to the poison-
ing of the Emperor Louis (or Ludwig) V of the
Bavarian line. She died in 1351, her husband surviv-
ing her for seven years, whereupon Ferrette devolved
upon her son Rudolph. At his death in August 1365
the county was inherited conjointly by his brothers,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 79
and from them it passed with its dependent lordships
Cernay and Massevaux had been added to them
to others of the house of Austria.
During the interregnum which followed the death
of the Emperor Albert II, Alsace was raided by bands
of soldiery who had previously been in the pay of
the Count d'Armagnac during his struggle with the
house of Burgundy. Called Armagnacs in France,
these impecunious mercenaries became known to
the Alsatian peasantry as the Arme Gecken, or " Poor
Scamps." In 1444 five years after their first irrup-
tion they returned under the orders of the French
Dauphin (afterwards Louis XI), who had engaged in
hostilities with some of the Swiss. When the latter
had been worsted at Saint-Jacques, it occurred to
Louis' soldiers to pillage Alsace, the Emperor of the
time, a certain Frederick the Pacific, being virtually
powerless. But the confederate Alsatian towns rose
up against the Arme Gecken, and in 1445 compelled
them to evacuate the province.
Twenty-two years later Charles the Rash * ascended
the ducal throne of Burgundy, and in 1469 Sigismund,
a Duke of Austria, and a needy one, sold to him the
Landgraviate of Upper Alsace, together with all
proprietary rights over the Sundgau, Brisgau (on the
right bank of the Rhine), the county of Ferrette and
its dependencies, for the sum of 80,000 florins in gold,
it being stipulated that the inhabitants should retain
all existing rights and privileges, and, further, that
Sigismund or his heirs should be entitled to repurchase
the lordships which were thus ceded. Charles, how-
ever, conceived the brilliant idea of immediately
* Most English writers call this prince Charles the Bold ; but Rash is
by far the better term, for it accords more closely both with the French
appellation Temeraire and with the facts of Charles's career.
80 THE TRUE STORY OF
recouping himself for his outlay by emptying the
pockets of his new subjects, and the exactions of his
deputy, a certain Peter von Hagenbach, were terrible.
Strasburg, Colmar, Schlestadt, and Basle at last
offered to raise enough money to buy out Charles
and his rights. But the Burgundian ruler rejected
the offer, preferring to retain his hold on Alsace and,
at the same time, bleed its people.
His envoy Hagenbach, to rid himself of the
notables who resisted his oppression, endeavoured to
have them murdered, but his plot being discovered
his person was seized, and trial and sentence to
decapitation followed ; whereupon Charles in the
first place dispatched Hagenbach's brother to Alsace
to avenge him, and afterwards proceeded thither in
person. Some thirty localities, small towns and
villages, were pillaged and set on fire, but when
Charles turned upon the Swiss allies of the Alsatians,
their memorable victories over him at Morat and
Grandson (1476) gave him full cause to regret his
impetuous rashness. It is said that Duke Sigismund
recovered his Alsatian lordships after Charles's death
at the Battle of Nancy, but this is by no means clear.
The preferable account seems to be that Charles's
only daughter and heiress Marie of Burgundy brought
these Alsatian possessions, together with the Free
County of Burgundy (Franche-Comte), to her husband
Maximilian of Austria, afterwards the Emperor Maxi-
milian I.
In those old days Alsace did not suffer only from
the exactions of princes and the irruptions of dis-
orderly soldiery ; its own peasant folk, at times no
doubt with good reason, repeatedly rose against their
lords. One rebellion of the kind occurred in 3493,
and was followed by others in 1503, 1513, and 1525,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 81
This last, the most serious of all, was largely of a
religious character, being connected with the Ana-
baptist movement which spread to Northern Alsace
from Westphalia and the Netherlands. Townships,
villages, castles, and convents were attacked, taken,
and pillaged, and Duke Anthony of Lorraine had to
intervene in order to suppress the rebellion. The
upshot was the Saverne affair referred to in a previous
chapter * : the peasantry surrendering, giving up
their weapons, and then being massacred without
any regard for the conditions arrived at by the
Duke's bloodthirsty German mercenaries.
The Reformation was received with favour in
many parts of Alsace. The Lutheran zealots of
Strasburg at first failed, however, in their endeavour
to prohibit the celebration of Mass at the cathedral
and other Catholic churches, though, generally speak-
ing, they gained the mastery in the city. On the
other hand, in the Sundgau or Upper Alsace, over
which the Hapsburgs held direct sway, the Emperor
Charles V caused the Reformation to be put down
most mercilessly. It is said that no fewer than six
hundred converts to the new doctrines were burnt
at the stake. Strasburg, however, defied the Emperor,
and went so far as to join the famous Protestant
League of Smalkalde, which for political reasons was
aided and abetted by Catholic France, where Francis I
was reigning. In 1547 the League was defeated at
Miihlberg, but another eight years elapsed before the
Religious Peace of Augsburg re-established some
degree of tranquillity. About half a century later
trouble arose over the Bishopric of Strasburg, two
would-be administrators of the see, which was vacant,
contending with one another for the office by force
* See pp. 33, 34, ante.
V
82 THE TRUE STORY OF
of arms. On the one side was John George of Hohen-
zollern, Elector of Brandenburg, and on the other
Cardinal Charles of Lorraine. The so-called Bishop
War bischoflicke Krieg lasted for eight months,
during which several Alsatian towns and villages were
once again sacked and fired. Finally, on November 26,
1604, a treaty was signed at Haguenau by which the
Hohenzollern desisted from his claims in return for
the payment of a lump sum of money as " indemnity,"
and an annual allowance for life out of the revenues
of the see. He was a Lutheran, but, like the Hohen-
zollern he also was, he did not object to pocketing
Catholic gold.
At last came the famous Thirty Years' War (1618-
1648), due in part to the antagonism of Protestants
and Catholics, and in part to the overweening ambition
of the house of Austria and the apprehensions which
this excited. It was for the second reason that
France, although governed by a Prince of the Church,
Cardinal Richelieu, took part in the struggle, at first
more or less covertly by supporting the Swedish
King Gustavus Adolphus, but afterwards by direct
intervention. At one and another period of the
contest Alsace became one of the chief battlefields
where all the participants committed the issue to the
decision of arms. Nearly all the Alsatian nobility
declared for the Protestant cause, but the province
generally was very divided, and horrible excesses
ensued oil the part of the rival combatants. One of
the first commanders on the German Protestant side,
Count Mansfeld, levied heavy contributions of war
on many towns, slaughtered the inhabitants of
Rosheim, and afterwards destroyed the place. In
1632 a Swedish army under Count Gustavus Horn,
after overruning a large part of Lorraine, penetrated
ALSACE-LORRAINE 83
into Alsace where the Duke of Lorraine was holding
the town of Saverne. The Lorrainers, however, could
not stop the Swedes, who took town after town, and
entering the Catholic Sundgau butchered many (one
account says 2000) of its peasantry. At last the
Catholic or Imperial forces retained little beyond a
portion of Lower Alsace, including the town of
Haguenau. In 1634 the Imperialists were beaten by
the Swedes at Wattwiller, and in the same year
Bernard of Saxe-Weimar defeated Duke Charles of
Lorraine at the Champ-des-Bceufs, otherwise Ochsen-
feld, and afterwards occupied Thann. In the same
year, however, the Swedes and the German Protestants
under Horn and Bernard of Weimar suffered a severe
reverse at Nordlingen in Bavaria, where the Impe-
rialists were commanded by the future Emperor
Ferdinand III and Cardinal Don Fernando, an Infant
of Spain.
After this engagement the Swedes found it impos-
sible to retain possession of the towns they held in
Alsace. They ceded them,* therefore, temporarily
to France, by a treaty which was signed in Paris
that same year, and which provided that France
should transfer the towns in question to Bernard of
Weimar whenever peace should ensue. It would
appear that Bernard was acknowledged by France
as Duke of Alsace, but as he died at Huningen in
1639 the country was never actually under his full
control, though it is true that after he had taken
Brisach in 1637, and defeated the Imperialists at
Wittenwihr and the Lorrainers at Cernay, he occupied
virtually all the territory excepting the towns which
Richelieu had garrisoned with French troops. Among
* That is, with the exception of Benfeld, which the Swedes subsequently
transferred to the Bishop of Strasburg.
84 TBPE TRUE STORY OF
these towns was Saverne, which a force under Cardinal
de Lavalette (prelates had no scruples about fighting
in those days) captured in 1636.
Hostilities were prolonged for some nine years
after the death of Bernard of Weimar. France took
a more and more prominent part in the great struggle
in order to prevent the establishment of Austrian
hegemony over Europe. The Emperor Ferdinand II,
whose ambition and hatred of Protestantism had
first lighted the torches of war, was dead, and his
son Ferdinand III reigned in his place. Gustavus
Adolphus had long since fallen on the field of Liitzen ;
Wallenstein, his greatest adversary, had been assas-
sinated with the connivance of his jealous sovereign ;
Horn was still alive, but Baner, the most terrible of
the Swedish commanders, had preceded both Richelieu
and Louis XIII to the grave. Louis XIV was but a
young lad, reigning under the regency of his mother,
Anne of Austria, who, in all probability, was secretly
married to her principal Minister, Cardinal Mazarin.
Yet, though many high and mighty personages had
joined the majority and been replaced by others,
though millions of combatants and non-combat-
ants had been slain, though scores of towns and
many hundreds of villages had been sacked and
at times set on fire, though countless acres of
fertile land lay waste, though burgesses starved
beside their empty larders and hinds in their
wretched huts, the Great War, which was to decide
whether the Hapsburg (like the Hohenzollern to-day)
should or should not be the Master of Europe, still
continued.
In Alsace, by reason of the conspicuous and, one
may add, sanguinary share of the Swedes in the
struggle there, the war became known particularly
ALSACE-LORRAINE 85
as the Schwcdenkrieg, and so terrible was the deso-
lation it brought with it, so many and so ghastly
were the tales of horror and infamy handed down
in later days from father to son, through successive
generations, that the memory of it was still often
evoked in towns and in villages, on the Rhenish
plain and on the Vosgian slopes, beside the rivulets
coursing through the sequestered valleys, and in the
dim depths of the great forest lands, even until the
times in which we ourselves live. The Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars left no such deep impression
on the bulk of the Alsatians, though they shared the
sufferings of that period ; it needed the Deutschenkrieg
of 1870 and all which then occurred to bedim the
fireside traditions lingering from the days of the great
Swedish- Austrian contest.
At last the victories of Freiburg and Nordlingen
gained by Conde and Turenne over the Imperialists
under Count Mercy, who fell in the last-mentioned
battle, prepared the way for peace, though this was
only finally concluded in 1648, after years of confer-
ence and discussion at Osnabriick. The Treaty of
Westphalia or Miinster, as it is diversely called (it
was signed in the old town hall of Miinster), provided
for the enlargement of the territories of the North
German princes, gave them and their subjects liberty
of religion, and the right to enter into alliances with
foreign States. Austrian domination in Germany
thus received a very severe check. With respect to
France, the Emperor Ferdinand III ceded to King
Louis XIV (then ten years of age) the town and
fortress of Breisach,* the Landgraviate of Upper and
Lower Alsace, the Sundgau, inclusive of the county
of Ferrette, all prefectoral rights over ten Imperial
* See p. 41, ante,
86 THE TRUE STORY OF
towns, and likewise transferred to him all authority
in respect to the Bishops of Strasburg and Basle, the
Abbots of Lure, Andlau, Minister, etc., the Counts of
Fleckenstein and Lichtenberg, and all others of the
nobility who had been immediate vassals of the
Empire. Briefly, the entire Hapsburg suzerainty over
Alsace passed to the Crown of France, the historic
rights and customs of the inhabitants being at the
same time confirmed to them. Strasburg was excepted
from the treaty (apart from the transfer of authority
over the Bishop) and remained a Free City of the
Empire with its Republican constitution. Further,
Mulhouse was not included, as it had become part of
the Swiss Confederation.
Several clauses of the treaty were very vaguely
worded, and led to contestation. Somewhat later,
therefore, an instrument was signed at Osnabriick
by which the old Treaties of Passau (1552) and Augs-
burg (1555) were confirmed, in order that there might
be full liberty of conscience in Alsace. With respect
to ecclesiastical property it was decided that each
party (Catholic and Protestant) should retain what
it had possessed at the beginning of the year 1624.
Such then were the conditions under which Alsace,
excepting Strasburg and Mulhouse, became a province
of France.
Nevertheless, the settlement was not definitive.
The next of the Germanic Emperors, Leopold I, en-
deavoured to upset it, and Alsace was invaded by
Imperialist forces. They were expelled by Turenne
after his victory at Turkheim on January 5, 1675,
and four years later the Treaty of Nimeguen con-
firmed France in her possession of Alsace. This was
again confirmed by the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697,
and yet again by the Treaty of Rastadt in 1714,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 87
Charles VI, the father of the famous Maria Theresa,
then having become Emperor. The Ryswick Treaty,
by the way, expressly confirmed the annexation of
Strasburg to France, which had taken place in 1681
under circumstances which I shall soon narrate.
With regard to the county of Ferrette, the real source
of the Austrian dominion in Alsace, the Bishop of
Basle raised a preposterous claim to this lordship,
but in December 1659, after the Treaty of the Pyrenees,
Louis XIV bestowed it, with Belfort, Thann, Alt-
kirch, and Isenheim, on Cardinal Mazarin, reserving
to himself only rights of sovereignty. From Mazarin
the seigneuries in question passed to his niece, Hortense
Mancini, and her husband, on whose death in 1713
they reverted to the French Crown.
Yet another matter of interest and not without
importance must be mentioned here. At the time
of the Treaty of Westphalia the actual Landgrave
of Alsace under the Emperor Ferdinand III was an
Austrian Archduke named Ferdinand Charles, a young
man of twenty or thereabouts at the date of the
treaty. In order to compensate him for the rights
which this instrument extinguished, Louis XIV, or
rather his Minister, Mazarin, offered to pay him the
sum of three million limes tournois, which, as a lime
tournois was equivalent to about three-quarters of a
lime parisis* must have represented about 100,000
of our money a large sum in those days. When in
1659 the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed between
France and Spain, Philip IV, sovereign of the latter
country and a Hapsburg by his descent from the
Emperor Charles V, renounced for himself and his
successors all contingent claims on Alsace proper,
the Sundgau, and Ferrette, and that point being
* Livres of Tours and limes of Paris.
88 TH*E TRUE STORY OF
settled Mazarin, on behalf of Louis XIV, promised to
pay the 100,000 to Archduke Ferdinand Charles in
five instalments to be spread over a period of three
years. The Archduke died, however, at Innsbruck,
in the Tyrol, on December 30, 1662, leaving no issue
by his wife Anne, daughter of Cosmo II de' Medici,
Grand Duke of Tuscany * ; and at that date at
least the bulk of the money due to him from France
had not yet been paid. In December the following
year, however, it was remitted to his brother and
heir, Archduke Sigismund Francis, who had been a
party to the covenant ; and receipts for the three
million limes tournois are still preserved in the National
Archives of France. Thus all claims of any descrip-
tion which might have been urged in respect to
Alsace by any member of the Imperial Family were
extinguished, and no prince of that family ever after-
wards assumed any Alsatian title.
It is true, however, that the Bishop of Strasburg
protested against the clause of the Treaty of West-
phalia which virtually transferred his see from
Germany to France. The motive of this protest may
be easily fathomed. The prelate was a member of
the Imperial family a certain Leopold William of
Austria. These Hapsburgs were a very proud set
of men, particularly vain of their lineage and the
rank to which they had risen. Their descent cannot
be traced back with exactitude farther than the
time of Albert the Rich, who was favoured by Frederick
Barbarossa in the twelfth century ; but although
several spurious genealogies of the house have been
concocted at various periods some forgers connect-
* The mother of Ferdinand Charles was also a Medici, married to Archduke
Leopold V. The Austrian pretensions to Tuscany originated in some of these
matrimonial alliances.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 89
ing it with the first house of Lorraine, others with
Etichon, the early Duke of Alsace, others with the
Zseringen line, yet others with the Pierleoni, and one
with the Scipios of ancient Rome they are known
to have existed about the year 1000, when, indeed,
a scion of the family, a certain Wernher, became
Bishop of Strasburg.*
In the course of centuries that see became an
important one. Those who held it were Prince-
Bishop-Electors of the Empire, and in the general
Diet occupied the tenth place (between the Bishops
of Speyer and Constance) in the first row of seats
allotted to the College of Princes. It follows that
Leopold William, Bishop of Strasburg at the time of
the Peace of Westphalia, was by no means inclined
to become a subject of the French Crown. Thus he
protested loudly against the transfer of his benefice,
and was not pacified until His Most Christian but
very youthful Majesty Louis XIV who, throughout
his long career, showed a great respect for bishops
unless they presumptuously endeavoured to thwart
his personal passions graciously signified that he
would renounce this particular stipulation in the
Treaty of Minister, and leave Leopold William in his
dignity as a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.
Thus, for the time being, was the matter settled. It
should, by the by, be noted that the Cathedral of
Strasburg had been turned long previously into a
Protestant church in spite of the protests of successive
prelates, and that the town of Molsheim had become
de facto the seat of the episcopal see.
* The reader may be reminded that the historic mined castle of Hapsburg,
which would appear to be of a much later date than the family's origin,
stands on the Walpelsberg above Schinznach, in the canton of Argovia,
Switzerland.
90 ALSACE-LORRAINE
There remains still one important matter to be
mentioned in connexion with the Treaty of Westphalia,
one conveniently overlooked by many German writers.
Alsace, with the exception of the Republics of Strasburg
and Mulhouse, became a party to this treaty. The
Emperor Ferdinand vainly tried to prevent what he
regarded as an act of presumption. His opposition was
disregarded. The imperial suzerainty over Alsace had
long been only nominal. Thus a certain Dr. Mark Otton
(or Otto) was dispatched to Minister as Alsatian envoy,
and signed the conventions. This fact clearly indicates
the willingness of the bulk of the Alsatians to become
definitely united to France. I shall soon show that in
course of time Strasburg and, subsequently, Mulhouse
followed the example of the rest of the province.
IV
ALSATIAN HISTORY
(FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA TO THE WAR OF 1870)
Strasburg united to France : Dietrich the Ammeister : The Curious
Mission of the Count de Chamilly : The Convention between France
and the Strasburg Authorities : The Edict of Nantes and the Persecu-
tion of Dietrich : The Condition of Alsace under the Old Regime :
The Great Revolution in Alsace : Schneider the Franciscan : Commis-
saries Saint-Just and Lebas : Mulhouse chooses French Nationality :
The Napoleonic Era in Alsace : The Bourbon Restoration : The
Conspiracy of Belfort : The Reign of Louis Philippe : The future
Napoleon III at Strasburg : Austrian Threats to seize Alsace : The
Coup d'Etat and the Second Empire : Prussia and Neufchatel :
Bismarck's Threat to Alsace : Last Years of the Second Empire.
IN 1672 Germany and Spain, alarmed by the successes
of Louis XIV in his war with Holland, invaded Upper
Alsace and took up winter quarters there. The
" Republic of Strasburg " resolved to preserve neu-
trality, but according to the French this was not
scrupulously observed, the citizens, it w r as said, allowing
the Imperialists to make use of the bridge across the
Rhine. Turenne, therefore, in the course of his
operations endeavoured to seize a redoubt constituting
a tete de pont, but the burghers defended themselves
so vigorously that the French abandoned the enter-
prise, and Turenne afterwards promised to respect
the town's neutrality. He eventually drove the Im-
perialists out of Alsace by his victories at Turkheim
and Ensisheim, but was killed on July 27 that same
year 1675 by a cannon-ball at Salzbach. Montecu-
culli, the Imperialist commander, afterwards inflicted
91
92
TliE TRUE STORY OF
some reverses on the French, and the German forces,
returning to Alsace, besieged Saverne and Haguenau.
The great Conde at last threw them across the Rhine
again, but before that was accomplished he attempted
some negotiations with Strasburg, dispatching thither
as his envoy a certain Marquis de Laloubere, who
endeavoured to induce the burgesses to transfer the
tete de pout to the French, in order to prevent any
further irruption of the enemy from across the Rhine
at this point.
The town's Ammeister chief of the guilds and
magistrate was then Dominic Dietrich, a Lorrainer
by origin, whom the religious intolerance of the times
(he was a convinced Protestant) had driven from
his native town of Saint-Nicolas near Nancy. He
listened to Laloubre's suggestions, but, realizing
that the transfer of the tete de pont to the French
might well compromise the independence of Strasburg,
he would not consent to it, but assumed command of
the redoubt in person. Subsequently, however, when
Marshal de Crequi had succeeded Conde, one of his
lieutenants, the Baron de Montclar, captured the
redoubt at Kehl facing Strasburg on the other side
of the Rhine and set the bridge on fire this being
done to prevent the Imperialists from again using the
bridge and to punish Strasburg for its alleged breaches
of neutrality in that respect. At the same time fresh
endeavours were made to win the authorities of the
town over to the French cause. The war fluctuated
for some while longer, but eventually, in 1678, the
peace of Nimeguen was signed, and Strasburg thought
its cherished independence secured.
Two years later Louis XIV instituted some special
chambers (chambres de reunion) of the parlements of
Metz, Brisach, and Besancon, and commissioned them
ALSACE-LORRAINE 93
to inquire into the status of the fiefs, townships,
and landed estates of Alsace, the Three Bishoprics,
Franche-Comte, and French Flanders provinces ceded
to his crown in recent years, but where a certain
number of nobles, municipalities, and others still
claimed to be attached in one or another way to the
Holy Roman Empire. An end was put to these
anomalies in numerous instances, but the question of
Strasburg remained. The town, with the neighbour-
ing lands which it owned, claimed to be independent,
yet still acknowledged the suzerainty of the Emperor.
However, a certain Frischmann was appointed French
Resident there, and gradually won the Bishop and the
Grand Chapter over to the side of France. There
can be no doubt that one of the chief inducements
held out to these ecclesiastics was the restoration of
the cathedral to the Catholic see. This Leopold
William of Austria having died in 1662 was now held
by Franz Egon von Furstenberg, who, in order to
regain possession of property belonging to his Church,
proved much more accommodating than his prede-
cessor. Moreover, Frischmann, who installed a chapel
in his house, gained over certain prominent Protestants
of Strasburg and even induced them to abjure their
religion. Among these folk were a certain Gauzer or
Giinzer, secretary of the Senate, and a man named
Obrecht, whose father, having committed some crime
or other, is said to have suffered the extreme penalty,
on which account the son detested the Ammeister
Dietrich. The last named had repeatedly given proof
of his desire to preserve the town's independence
unimpaired, but he at last entered into the views of
those who favoured union with France.
Secret negotiations proceeded, and meantime,
ostensibly for the purpose of enforcing certain de-
94 THE TRUE STORY OF
cisions of the previously mentioned chambres de
reunion, Louvois, who had become Louis XIV's
Secretary of State, strongly reinforced the troops
which were garrisoned in Alsace under the command
of that same General de Montclar who some years
previously had fired the bridge of Kehl. It may be
taken, I think, that the reinforcement of Montclar 's
troops was designed more to provide for eventualities
should war ensue with Germany than to impose
surrender on Strasburg, for there are many indications
that Louvois (however imperious his nature may have
been) did not desire to use force against the town,
but wished to win it over by negotiation.
There is a romantic, in some respects perhaps
fabulous, but in any case interesting story respecting
the negotiations, which may be repeated here. Among
the French generals of the time there was a certain
Noel Bouton, Comte de Chamilly, who had fought
bravely and successfully in several campaigns. He
was a tall, handsome, well-built man, and being at
one time in Portugal he there attracted the attention
of a beautiful young nun, who addressed to him some
of the most ardently passionate letters existing in the
epistolary literature of any nation. Chamilly replied
to the young person in an equally fervid strain, but as
he was recalled to France the correspondence was not
of long duration. He appears to have boasted about
his adventure on his return home, and to have shown
his inamorata's effusions to his friends. Such was the
origin of the famous " Lettres Portuguaises " trans-
lated into English, I believe, as the " Letters of a
Portuguese Nun " a few of them being held quite
authentic, whilst others are regarded as concoctions.
Chamilly may well be censured for circulating his
billets-doux, but according to the memoirs of that
ALSACE-LORRAINE 95
venomous prig, the self-admiring Duke de Saint-
Simon, he was so grossly stupid and so ponderously
beefy that it was incredible any woman should ever
have loved him, or that he should have had any
talent at all for warfare. The Duke asserts that
Chamilly's wife accompanied him wherever he went
in order to assist him with her brains, but it is quite as
likely that she was extremely jealous of him, and did
not wish him to succumb to the fascinations of any
other woman, Portuguese nun or otherwise. How-
ever that may be, one day in 1684, when Chamilly
was without a command, Louvois sent for him, and
said that he wished him to go to Basle at once. The
journey would take three days, and on the fourth, at
two o'clock in the afternoon, he was to repair to the
bridge spanning the Rhine, and carefully note in
writing every incident he might observe there, how-
ever insignificant this incident might be. At four
o'clock he was to take his coach again, and return to
Versailles with the utmost dispatch. At whatever
hour he might arrive Louvois would be ready to
receive him.
Without asking any questions, for he well knew
the Minister's disposition, Chamilly went his way and
installed himself on the bridge at Basle. The first
person whom he saw crossing it was a woman carrying
some baskets of fruit. Next a horseman rode by.
Afterwards some ragged peasants passed. Then came
some heavily laden porters, and at last, at 3 p.m. or
thereabouts, a man in yellow coat and breeches
appeared, and, approaching the parapet near the
centre of the bridge, gazed for some minutes at the
water. At last, suddenly stepping back, he rapped the
masonry three times with a stout stick, and then
walked away. Later, other people, men and women
96 TrfE TRUE STORY OF
of all sorts and conditions, passed over the bridge,
but at four o'clock Chamilly's coach drove up and he
sprang into it and was soon rolling away from Basle.
He had noted down all that he had seen, but could not
imagine how any such trivial incidents could possibly
interest Louvois. To his thinking either the Minister
had made a fool of him, or else something which it was
thought he would witness had not occurred.
Nevertheless he carried out all his instructions.
It was nearly midnight on the third day when he
reached Versailles, but he at once waited upon Louvois,
who received him eagerly, and without asking any
questions hastily perused the notes which had been
jotted down on the bridge. When the Minister came
to the account of the man in yellow he raised an
exclamation of delight, and although the King had
retired some time previously he went to his apartments,
caused him to be awakened, and told him that the
authorities of Strasburg were willing to come under
his rule, but wished it to appear that they surrendered
to force.
^^.
One is led to infer from this story, not altogether
unworthy of the great Dumas, that the man in yellow
was Gauzer or Giinzer, the secretary of the Senate of
Strasburg, who is known to have quitted the town
about this time on a so-called " mysterious journey."
Apprehensive of the many German spies in Alsace, he
was unwilling to have any interview there with a
French emissary, and therefore proceeded to Basle to
signify in an indirect but prearranged manner that
the principle of French sovereignty was accepted.
For the rest, the town laid down its own terms, which
with certain reserves, none of great importance, were
accepted by France. In Appendix B to this volume
will be found the full text of the " Articles proposed by
ALSACE-LORRAINE 97
the Praetors, Consuls, and Magistrate of the Town of
Strasburg," with the annotations and reserves of the
French plenipotentiaries, who were Louvois and General
de Montclar.
The former, in order to conduct the final negotia-
tions, repaired in all haste to Alsace, and installed
himself at Illkirch, a few miles south of Strasburg,
in an old pargeted, high-roofed house, with peaked
corner turrets, which, I believe, still exists. Some
points of interest in connexion with the historical
document given in the Appendix may be discussed
here. A certain discrepancy in dates will be observed.
At the outset the " articles " are said to have been
proposed on September 30, 1681. That is not so.
September 30 was the date when the final ratifica-
tion by Louis XIV was signified, the date when
the convention became really binding; and it was
doubtless for this reason that it was prefixed to the
text I give. But the Proposals were made by the
authorities of Strasburg twenty days previously.
Above the signatures appear the words : " Done at
Illkirch, September 10, 1681." In the preamble
Louvois and Montclar promise the royal ratification
within ten days' time, but it must have been delayed,
as it seems to have been formally announced only on
the 30th.
Another point is this : If the authorities of Stras-
burg desired the French to make a show of force it was
to save their faces in various respects. There was,
first, the fear of drawing upon the town the resent-
ment of Germany, for, although, as I have shown,
Strasburg had possessed for three centuries and more
a constitution which practically made it independent,
it still ranked as a Free City of the Empire, and held,
municipally as well as ecclesiastically, certain lands
98
TITE TRUE STORY OF
on the right bank of the Rhine that is, in what may
be well called German territory. One could hardly ex-
pect, then, that the Emperor (at that time Leopold I)
would view with equanimity Strasburg's incor-
poration with France. He might even declare war,
and, as I previously remarked, if Montclar had a
strong force of troops at his disposal it was largely
to enable that eventuality to be met. A great army
was not required for the sole purpose of blockading
Strasburg.
Further, the authorities of the town desired to
save their faces in respect to those of their own com-
patriots who did not wish to sever the German con-
nexion. It is certain that many people were per-
plexed respecting the best course to pursue. Ques-
tions of race, manners and customs, and religion
tended to divide opinion. In the first respect it
should be said that the Alsatians, generally, never
identified themselves with the Germans dwelling across
the Rhine. They applied to the latter the same
contemptuous appellation of Schwab which one finds
prevailing still to-day among the Magyars of Hungary.
They, the Alsatians, were a mixed breed in which
Celtic, Roman, and other elements were blended with a
Germanic one. In the last named, moreover, there
existed a Frankish strain, differing in various respects
from other German strains. It may be said of the
Dutch and the Flemings that they belong more or less
to the Germanic family of races, yet are not Germans,
and, indeed, generally resent being likened to them.
Much the same remark may be applied to the Alsatians,
whose affinities, particularly in Upper Alsace, linked
them more to the German elements of the Swiss,
population than to the people of Germany proper.
German invasions and German domination had
ALSACE-LORRAINE 99
undoubtedly left their mark upon Alsace, but its
inhabitants retained distinct characteristics of their
own. I shall have something to say about their
various dialects in another chapter, here I need only
mention that Alsatian German was by no means
readily understood across the Rhine.
With respect to the position at the time of the
incorporation of Strasburg with France there is
reason to think that what most tended to divide
public opinion was religion, on which subject, both
among Catholics and among Protestants, much in-
tolerance prevailed. The question of uniformity of
religion was then still largely regarded by communities
as being more important than that of nationality, a
man's nationality often being determined by his creed.
It is well known that many French Protestants left
their country and became foreigners long before the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Now both the
Emperor and the King of France were Catholics, but
whilst there were several powerful Protestant Princes
in Germany, there was none in France, where, more-
over, the rights and privileges conferred on Protestants
by the Edict of Nantes, that act of wisdom emanating
from Henri IV, had been gradually, but steadily,
curtailed by his grandson Louis XIV. That must
have appeared ominous to the Alsatian Protestants,
but although since the Peace of Westphalia prose-
lytism had been practised in their midst, in an in-
creasing degree, by the Catholic clergy and others,
and although the favours of Louis XIV's officials went
generally to Catholics, there does not appear to have
been so far any governmental interference with religious
liberty in Alsace. Protected as they were by the
solemn treaties of Minister and Osnabriick,the Alsatian
Protestants can hardly have imagined that before
100 THfe TRUE STORY OF
long their right to worship as they pleased would be
very seriously threatened.
Yet, on the whole, from the religious standpoint the
question whether Strasburg should belong to France
or to Germany was a perplexing one for many of its
burghers. The officials who negotiated with Louvois
must have realized that in any case the French would
desire to restore the cathedral to the Catholic clergy.
It will be observed that in Clause III of the town's Pro-
posals this edifice is not specifically mentioned among
the ecclesiastical buildings of which the Protestants
wished to retain possession. Louvois' annotation to
this clause is designed to make the question of the
cathedral's future quite clear.
Whilst Strasburg at that time contained partisans
of France and partisans of Germany, there were also
many folk who wished the town to retain its indepen-
dence unimpaired. Dietrich, the Ammeister, had long
been one of them, but the recent wars had shown
how very difficult it was for such a comparatively
small community to ensure respect for its neutrality
amidst the contentions of great powers. In that
connexion one cannot help thinking of Belgium
and all her cruel misfortunes.
I have said enough to show the reader that all
sorts of reasons the fear of German enmity and of
possible protests on the part of citizens influenced by
considerations of religion and independence com-
bined to induce the Strasburg authorities to require
on the French side a show of force, which would make
it appear that they yielded to sheer necessity. For
the rest, the Proposals of the town's representatives
prove how jealously they provided for the maintenance
of the old constitution, religious liberty, the old
privileges, rights, and revenues. At no moment was
ALSACE-LORRAINE 101
there any question of an unconditional surrender,
and historians have again and again misrepresented
the facts by asserting that Strasburg was seized in
an arbitrary fashion and in defiance of all right.
The proposals of Illkirch having been submitted on
September 10, and sent with Louvois' annotations to
Louis XIV for ratification, matters remained virtually
in statu quo until the night of the 27th, by which time,
probably, the ratification had arrived. In any case
it was then that various detachments of Montclar's
troops invested that part of Strasburg's fortifications
a redoubt which was nearest to the Rhine, and seized
the tete de pont. On the following day, apparently,
some of the soldiers entered the town. There were
cannon on the ramparts, but no attempt was, or could
be, made to use them, for the authorities had carefully
kept the gunpowder under lock and key, in order to
prevent any impulsive burghers from endeavouring to
resist the entry of the French. Finally, on September
30, the royal ratification of the Illkirch Proposals was
delivered to the town officials. Thus Strasburg passed
to the Crown of France.
Louis XIV is said to have arrived there on the
ensuing October 23, when, it would appear, the cathe-
dral was handed over to the Bishop* ; but Edouard
Siebecker, a prominent Alsatian writer of the last
generation, tells us that the King only saw the town
from the outside, being unwilling to enter it on account
of the religious stipulations contained in the conven-
tion. If that be correct, the King's attitude already
foreshadowed future trouble. The municipality of
course continued in office, but a royal military governor
was appointed, the post being assigned to the M. de
* Franz Egon von Furstenberg, who was succeeded in 1685 by his
brother Wilhelm.
102 THE TRUE STORY OF
Chamilly whose more or less authentic expedition to
Basle the reader will remember. About the same
time the genius of Vauban was requisitioned to
strengthen and increase the city's fortifications.
Those then existing they were the work of a skilful
local engineer named Daniel Speckle were already
considerable, but Vauban added to them and built
the citadel. There is a story that some time after-
wards a German spy came to Strasburg to ascertain
what the new defences might be like. Chamilly is
said to have guessed his mission, and to have shown
him over every bastion and casemate, after which he
wished him a bon voyage, saying : " Now, monsieur,
on your return to your master, the Emperor, you will
be able to tell him that Strasburg is henceforth
impregnable ! ?:
It may well have been so in those days. What-
ever we may think of Vauban' s many fortifications
now, when the art of warfare has undergone such
vast changes, they were the most perfect of their
kind in the age to which this man of genius belonged,
and, indeed, they rendered good service for a long
time afterwards. To Vauban was allotted the great
task of making all the frontiers of France secure, and
according to his scheme Lille, Metz, and Strasburg
became three mainstays of the country's defence.
He built the fortresses of Huningen and Belfort to
check any invasion coming from the direction of
Basle ; Phalsbourg was designed to close the northern
defiles of the Vosges ; the works of Landau, then a
French possession, were an answer to those of Philipps-
burg; whilst those of Ney's birthplace, Sarrelouis
filched by the Prussians in 1815 protected the gap
in the frontier between the Vosges and the Moselle.
Central Europe became alarmed by Vauban's activity,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 103
rumours of war again arose, particularly as the Em-
peror felt extremely sore on the subject of Strasburg;
but a truce was patched up at Ratisbon, and was
to have lasted for twenty years, during which the
Empire agreed to leave the capital of Alsace in the
possession of France. As we shall see, however, the
truce was only a brief one.
In 1685 Louis, yielding to the combined influence
of his wife La Maintenon, whom he had married
secretly the previous year, his reverend father con-
fessor, and his Chancellor, Louvois' father, capped
all the previous mistakes of his reign by a more
stupendous one. To the lasting detriment of the
French nation he revoked the Edict of Nantes. The
Alsatian Protestants still imagined themselves pro-
tected by the covenants of Minister and Osnabnick,
but the royal intendant, a man named La Grange, as
fanatically bigoted as was his master, did his utmost
to extirpate " heresy." Moreover, shoals of Jesuits
and Capuchins descended on the province, scoured
the countrysides, and frightened whole villages into
abjuration, in such wise that before very long the
proportion of Protestants in Alsace dwindled from
two-thirds to a quarter of the population. Many
folk emigrated to Switzerland and some even to
Germany.
At the time of the Revocation, Dietrich, the
Ammeister of Strasburg, was summoned to Versailles.
It was known that he had contributed powerfully to
the town's incorporation with France. His example,
in giving up the idea of independence, had then
exercised the greatest influence on many of his fellow-
citizens. But he was a sturdy Protestant, and if
Versailles so particularly desired that he should
abjure his religious faith it was in the hope that his
104 THE TRUE STORY OF
example in this respect would again influence the
people of Strasburg to follow in his steps. Promises
were made to him, and when promises failed threats
were tried, but nothing moved him. At last the
exasperated, bigoted King caused him to be interned
at Gueret (Creuse department), and there, in physical
and mental suffering, he spent four weary years.
When he was allowed to return to Strasburg it was
only on the strict condition that he should not stir
from his house, and that he should see nobody except-
ing the members of his own family. In this seclusion
he had to remain until 1692, at which time he was
seventy-two years old. More liberty was then allowed
him, but on March 9, 1694, he passed away. In such
wise were old-time fanatical and tyrannical kings only
too apt to treat those to whom they were indebted for
signal services.
By revoking the Edict of Nantes, however,
Louis XIV had once more lighted the torch of war.
In 1686, at the instigation of our Dutch William,
the famous Augsburg League was formed. Many
German Princes entered it as well as the Empire and
Spain and Sweden. Hostilities did not begin until
two years later, but they were only terminated in
1697 by the Treaty of Ryswick, which instrument, by
the way, confirmed the French King in the possession
of Strasburg as well as the other parts of Alsace
Mulhouse still excepted. Later, during the same
reign, came the war of the Spanish Succession (1701-
1714), during which the Imperialists again penetrated
into some parts of Alsace, besieged and took Haguenau,
and levied heavy contributions until they were ex-
pelled by Marshal Villars.
In spite of wars and religious persecutions the
material prosperity of Alsace increased in Louis XIV's
ALSACE-LORRAINE 105
time.* Commerce expanded considerably during the
ten years which elapsed between the Dutch and the
Augsburg wars, and among the aristocracy, the
upper bourgeoisie, and people of the educated classes
generally, when these were Catholics, French ideas,
tastes, and customs became more and more diffused,
the literature of the grand siecle being particularly
in great request. Only the narrow, bigoted policy of
the King prevented a similar movement among the
Alsatian Protestants. In the circumstances they were
constrained to remain apart, and in their semi-seclu-
sion the use of Germanic dialects and the practice of
more or less Germanic customs persisted.
With respect to religious matters Louis XV's reign
brought only one change of any importance, and that
was more of a political character than anything else.
By the Peace of Ryswick the see of Strasburg had
been separated from the Empire, the Bishop ceasing
to exercise any jurisdiction over the see's tempor-
alities on the right bank of the Rhine ; but in 1724,
when the Duke of Bourbon was chief Minister in
France, an arrangement was arrived at with the
Empire by which the prelate was re-established in the
aforesaid jurisdiction, with the right to sit and vote
in the Diet by virtue of his German possessions. An
extraordinary state of affairs again ensued. On the
one hand the Bishop was and remained a member of
the French Episcopacy, on the other he was at the
same time a Prince-Bishop-Elector of the Empire.
The anomaly was increased by the fact that since 1704
* At an early period of his reign Louis XIV substituted for the archducal
regency of Ensisheim a royal Council at Brisach, whose judgments were
sovereign. In 1698 this Council was transferred to Colmar. Its decrees
began aa follows : " We, the Governors and Councillors of the Council of
Alsace and the Lands dependent thereon, as established by His Most Christian
Majesty the King of France and Navarre, hereby signify and decree," etc.
106 THE TRUE STORY OF
the Bishop of Strasburg had been Armand Gaston of
Rohan- Soubise, who by birth and lineage had no
connexion whatever with Germany. Until the French
Revolution the Strasburg bishopric became, as it were,
a family fief of the Rohans, for three more of them
followed Armand Gaston, the last being the Cardinal
who was involved in the Diamond Necklace scandal.
Thus four members of this famous Breton house
became ex-officio Electors of the Empire.
The year 1741 brought with it the war of the
Austrian Siiccession and an irruption of wild Hun-
garian cavalry into Alsace. The " Pandour alarm "
(Pandurenldrm) scared many of the villagers, but
when Menzel, who commanded these barbaric horse-
men, issued a manifesto peremptorily summoning the
Alsatians to return to their allegiance to the Empire
they stoutly refused to do anything of the kind. On
the contrary, when, in 1744, Marie de Mailly-Nesle,
Duchess of Chateauroux the one worthy woman
among the many mistresses of Louis XV prevailed
on him to bestir himself and assume the command of
his armies, he was received in Alsace as in Lorraine
with the utmost enthusiasm. The sufferings and the
discontent brought about by the religious policy of the
Crown were at once forgotten, and all combined in
wishing success to France. In those days, even when
no war was being waged, a considerable garrison was
kept in Alsace on account of its situation as a frontier
province liable to attack. The presence of many
French troops, their intercourse with the inhabitants,
and the frequency with which young Alsatians en-
listed preferably in cavalry regiments, for although
the region was never noted for its horses its men
evinced great proficiency in horsemanship all tended
to the diffusion of French ideas and promoted assimila-
ALSACE-LORRAINE 107
tion. The troops were under the command of a
governor-general who resided at Strasburg, and was
generally a Marshal of France. Marshal Saxe held
the position for a number of years, and was succeeded
by such men as Contades, Broglie, Stainville, and
Rochambeau, the last named Lafayette's associate
in the American War of Independence.
Under the old regime the French peasantry suffered
terribly throughout the whole kingdom, the middle
class, or Third Estate, was also heavily taxed, and
possessed few if any rights, these being reserved for
the nobles and the clergy. Favouritism, corruption,
shameful abuses, denials of justice flourished on all
sides, and Alsace did not escape the common lot.
But its people were a hard-working, thrifty, energetic
race, and contrived to endure their burdens better
than the folk of some other provinces. Under an
official named Klinglin, Strasburg prospered exceed-
ingly in industry and commerce during several years
of the eighteenth century, but somebody discovered
one day that this admired praetor, to whom the
flourishing state of the municipal finances was attri-
buted, had embezzled large sums of money, which he
was alleged to have shared with one of the powerful
D'Argensons, who were Ministers of State at that time.
I am uncertain as to the identity of the particular
statesman involved in Klinglin' s affair, but in any
case he was beyond the reach of the irate burgesses of
Strasburg. They were, however, able to arrest the
less fortunate praetor, who was cast into prison and
eventually executed by strangulation.
Now and again, at this period, Strasburg became
the scene of sundry fetes and rejoicings. In 1747 it
welcomed to France the Dauphiness Marie Josephe of
Saxony, who became the mother of Louis XVI, and
108 TfaE TRUE STORY OF
in like way in 1770 it received that future monarch's
bride, Marie Antoinette. After the accession of the
last King of the old r6gime the greater equity and
tolerance shown to the Alsatian Protestants an edict
restored their civil rights in 1787 tended to increase
the province's prosperity. At the Peace of West-
phalia, which, it will be remembered, followed the
Thirty Years' War, only 250,000 inhabitants were left
in Alsace and the sum total yielded by the Crown taxes
was but 48,000, paid with the greatest difficulty after
incessant toiling and moiling. A hundred and forty
years later that is, in 1789 on the eve of the Revolution
notwithstanding all the losses caused by many more
wars and much religious persecution, the population
had doubled, and, according to Spach, one of the
Alsatian historians, the people were able to pay
360,000 in taxation annually, "not," be it said,
44 without complaining, but at least without being
absolutely crushed by the burden." The amount
mentioned represented in a time of great general cost-
liness and penury fully 1 per head for every man,
woman, and child of the classes subject to Crown
taxation nobles, clergy, and others, including certain
municipalities, like that of Strasburg, being exempted
from such payment.*
As was the case in other parts of France, the heavy
taxation, and the exactions and immunities of the
privileged classes, constituted a very bitter grievance
among the lower orders, and it is not surprising,
therefore, to find that when the States General of
1789 were convoked, the cahiers of the Alsatian Third
Estate embodied a suggestion that Alsace should be
restored to full independence. Throughout the pro-
vince generally as in Lorraine the first events of
* See Clause VI of the Proposals of Illkirch in Appendix B.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 109
the Revolution were enthusiastically received by the
masses. But various disorders occurred. When the
news of the taking of the Bastille reached Strasburg
a mob invaded the town hall and pillaged it. One
must acknowledge that the old constitution of the
town, so highly praised by Erasmus, was one of a very
exclusive kind, under which the so-called " common
people " had hardly any rights at all, and it was this
undoubtedly which fomented rioting and pillage.
Much satisfaction was evinced when Jean Frangois
Rewbell, one of the Alsatian representatives in the
States General, demanded the suppression of feudal
and ecclesiastical privileges ; and after the " Night
of August 4," when the States, gathered together
as a Constituent Assembly, abolished those privi-
leges, the old semi-feudal, semi-aristocratic corpo-
ration of Strasburg realized that its time was up,
and resigned office. A temporary administration was
then installed, and a force of National Guards, that
all but inevitable accompaniment to Revolution,
established.
Nevertheless extremist passions did not yet pre-
vail. Early in 1790 came municipal elections, which
resulted in the selection of Baron Philippe Frederic de
Dietrich, Count of the Ban de la Roche, as mayor.
He was probably a kinsman, if not a descendant, of the
Dominique Dietrich of Louis XIV's time. An expert
in mineralogy, he had previously acted as a Royal
Commissary for mines, smelting-works, and forests.
I had occasion to mention him in connexion with
Rouget de Flsle and the " Marseillaise."* Die-
trich was a friend of Lafayette and Bailly, mayor of
Paris, and like them he favoured a Constitutional
Monarchy, his opinions in which respect brought him
* See p. 30, ante.
110 THE TRUE STORY OF
eventually to the scaffold in spite of the considerable
services which he rendered in Alsace.
In June 1790 he presided at a great fete held to
inaugurate the so-called Federation of the Rhine,
when 20,000 armed men assembled at Strasburg, and
when all the authorities took a solemn oath to be
faithful to the Nation, the Law, and the King, and
to defend the new Constitution which had been set
up. Later the National Assembly's decree ordering
the sequestration of all ecclesiastical property led to
great unrest among the Alsatian Catholics, and matters
became worse when the prelates, priests, and others
who refused to take the oath to the so-called Civil
Constitution of the Clergy were deprived of their
benefices. The Cardinal de Rohan, Bishop of Stras-
burg, fled across the Rhine to Ettenheim, a German
dependency of his diocese, and afterwards busied
himself there in collecting recruits for the army of
emigres who proposed to put down the Revolution.*
At Strasburg Rohan was replaced by a certain Abbe
Brendel, who took the oath of obedience, and became
indirectly responsible for many horrible things which
afterwards occurred in the town.
There was a dearth of priests willing to accept the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and it occurred to
Brendel to import a number from Germany. Among
those who came was a certain Eulogius Schneider,
born in the vicinity of Wurzburg, then an ecclesiastical
principality and now in the Bavarian dominions.
Schneider had originally been a Franciscan, and was
endowed with a gift of fiery eloquence. Before long,
however, he threw off the mask of religion and became
a leader of the extremists.
Different elections of those times show that a
* Rohan died at Ettenheim in 1803.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 111
moderate Constitutionalism was largely favoured in
Alsace, and particularly in its capital. At the same
time there was no lack of patriotism, and when on
April 20, 1792, war was declared on Austria, Dietrich
at once set to work to organize defensive measures
against any possible attack on the Alsatian capital.
But events occurred which he and others would not
countenance. Immediately after the Parisian insur-
rection of August 10, which led to the imprisonment
of Louis XVI and his family, the municipality of
Strasburg voted an address to the Government,
demanding that the King's person should be regarded
as inviolable. A few days later four commissaries
arrived, suspended the audacious municipality from
office, and ordered the arrest of Dietrich. He, how-
ever, contrived to escape to Basle, where he remained
for a time in safety.*
Finding Constitutionalism so much in favour at
Strasburg, the Government transferred the elections
for the National Convention to Haguenau. The pace
of the Revolution was then accelerated, and for a
time the foreign menace became serious. In July
1793 the Prussians and Austrians under Brunswick
and Wiirmser, after retaking Mayence from the
French, entered Alsace. The forces under Custine
and Beauharnais (Josephine's first husband) had to
retreat. The famous lines of Wissembourg, which had
once saved France from invasion, were abandoned,
and the enemy drove the defeated troops within
gunshot of Strasburg. Great became the alarm there.
* He subsequently returned to France, and on being arraigned before
the Tribunal of Besan9on as an emigre, was acquitted. His enemies, however,
contrived to have him removed to Paris, where he was sentenced to death
by the Revolutionary Tribunal and executed on December 29, 1793. After
Robespierre's fall seven months later, the National Assembly rehabilitated
his memory.
112 T#E TRUE STORY OF
It was alleged that the Germans had confederates in
the town, and it is certainly true that at this time a
number of Emigre noblemen returned to Alsace and
welcomed the invaders as deliverers.
Elogius Schneider, the ex-Franciscan whom I pre-
viously mentioned, now served as Public Prosecutor
(Accumteur public) at the local Revolutionary Tribunal,
and played on the smaller stage of Strasburg much
the same part as Fouquier-Tinville played on the
larger one of Paris. He had previously become the
leader of a German Jacobin gang which had selected
Alsace as a suitable field for its exploits. Besides
perorating at the Jacobin clubs, Schneider founded
a news-sheet entitled the Argus, and, allying himself
for a while with a Savoyard Jacobin named Monet
and a French one known as Laveau, who edited a
paper called the Courrier Francais, he steadily
undermined the authority of Dietrich even before the
affair of the address calling for royal inviolability. As
Public Prosecutor Schneider cast off all restraint,
demanding and obtaining whatever banishments, im-
prisonments, and executions he desired, but even as
he sent others to the guillotine, so was he himself at
last committed to the swift offices of that busy
instrument.
Soon after the " suppression of Christianity " and
the pompous celebration at Strasburg of the Feast of
Robespierre's " Goddess Reason " (November 20,
1793) that masquerade, be it remembered, was by no
means confined to Paris a split occurred between
the French and the German Jacobins. The latter
were alleged to be in collusion with emigre nobles, and
judging by what is known of the German character,
even in the case of pseudo-Socialists, it is quite
possible that the charge was true. Now at this time
two Con
ALSACE-LORRAINE 113
^0 Commissaries attached by the Convention to the
Army of the Rhine arrived at Strasburg. They were
zealous partisans and particular friends of Robespierre,
one being the famous Louis de Saint-Just, who
perished by the guillotine, and the other Joseph
Lebas, who only escaped a similar fate by shooting
himself. In order to provide some money for arrears
of pay due to the Rhine army and for putting Stras-
burg in a better state of defence, they levied nine
million limes approximately 360,000 on the richer
inhabitants, who had to provide the amount within
four and twenty hours ; and at the same time they
ordered, at Schneider's instigation, the arrest of about
forty persons.
However, Monet, the Savoyard, now mayor of the
town, intervened, and nearly half of the arrested
people were released, whilst Schneider, whom Monet
and others denounced, was committed to prison.
Various Alsatian writers praise Saint- Just for what he
did in these matters. It was decided to send Schneider
to Paris, but before his departure he underwent what
was termed exposition on the scaffold, being pinioned
to a stake, affixed to which, above his head, was a
placard stating that he had " dishonoured the Revolu-
tion." On being tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal
in the capital, he was charged with having made
excessive use of the guillotine besides evincing aris-
tocratic tastes and tendencies. He was ultimately
executed on April 1, 1794.
At Strasburg a new Tribunal, in which French
Jacobins became prominent, was instituted. Its
methods differed little from those of its predecessor.
Monet became all-powerful, and waged war on Ger-
man Jacobins. The recall of Saint-Just and Lebas,
and later the fall of Robespierre, altered the situation.
114 THE TRUE STORY OF
Foussedoire, the next Government representative,
released many prisoners. Monet was removed from
the mayoralty and replaced by Bernard of Tiirkheim.
Reaction followed a period of excesses, and in 1795
the Jacobin party was defeated at the elections for the
new legislature that is, the Conseil des Anciens and
the Conseil des Cinq-Cents all the members for the
Lower Rhine being moderate Republicans, whilst the
Upper Rhine department returned former Conven-
tionnels who had voted against Robespierre. Thus
does the world go round, though, notwithstanding all
the teachings of the past, the extremists of to-day
appear to be unaware of it.
Rewbell the Alsatian was elected a member of
the Directory entrusted with the government of
France, and contended in favour of democratic, but
not extremist, principles. He was a party to the
coup d'etat of the Eighteenth Fructidor (September 4,
1797) directed against the more reactionary members
of the Councils, and became, with Barras and Lare-
velliere-Lepeaux, one of the Triumvirate which after-
wards exercised supreme power. But the regime
proved deplorable. The French arms suffered nume-
rous reverses, and the State was reduced to bank-
ruptcy. In Alsace the period was marked by one
notable event Mulhouse at last severed the ties
which linked her to Switzerland and joined the
French Republic.
For many centuries the little town had formed,
with some adjacent territory, a self-governing repub-
lican State, sometimes in close alliance with, sometimes
virtually incorporated in, the Swiss Confederation ;
and, generally speaking, it had only taken part in
Alsatian affairs when its own interests were in ques-
tion. Its commercial intercourse with France, though
ALSACE-LORRAINE 115
small, was constant, and its relations with the French
authorities were generally satisfactory. Its inhabi-
tants cordially detested the Germanic Empire, and
in 1744, when Louis XV was besieging Freiburg im
Breisgau, they dispatched a deputation to the castle
of Miinzingen, then his head-quarters, in order to
compliment him. In like way they sent deputations
to Strasburg to compliment the Dauphinesses
Marie Josephe and Marie Antoinette on their arrival
in French territory, and in 1777, three years after
the accession of Louis XVI, they concluded a de-
fensive military alliance with France and Switzer-
land.
In 1785, however, trouble arose. The empirical
Galon ne became Controller of French Finances, and
projecting the formation of a new Compagnie des
Indes, he prohibited the importation of foreign cotton
goods. This threatened to nip, almost in their
infancy, the cotton manufactures of Mulhouse, which
since the establishment of the Koechlin, Schmalzer,
and Dollfus works in 1746 had been gradually expand-
ing. The negotiations with the French authorities
did not prove satisfactory, and Mulhouse again drew
closer to Switzerland. Local restlessness and im-
poverishment followed the outbreak of the French
Revolution. In 1789, by reason of severe frosts, the
wine crop failed throughout Alsace. In the following
year the harvest failed, and grain and flour could
scarcely be obtained by the citizens of Mulhouse, for
the Alsatian roads became unsafe, and wagons
conveying cereals were often pillaged by famished
peasants. The French authorities, moreover, alarmed
by the shortage in their own territory, drew a cordon
of barriers round about the little republic, and in one
way or another subjected it to various vexations, so
116 THE TRUE STORY OF
that it seemed at last as if nothing could either come
in or go out.
Mulhouse appealed to her Swiss friends, through
whose offices some negotiations ensued, the upshot
being a draft treaty by which she was to be allowed
free communication with Alsace on condition that all
stipulated duties should be paid on the goods which
she might send into French territory. This draft or
preliminary treaty was signed on September 22, 1791.
But events were moving rapidly in France, urgent
matters were crowding one upon another, the sorely
shaken monarchy was tumbling faster and faster to
its doom, and so the little affair of Mulhouse was
neglected, virtually forgotten. Briefly, the treaty was
never ratified. On the contrary, indeed, barely six
weeks after the proclamation of the French Republic
(September 21, 1792) Mulhouse was declared foreign
territory, in such wise that no foodstuffs could be
obtained from France without payment of heavy
export duties.
Matters went from bad to worse. There was great
scarcity in most parts of Europe. Virtually every
nation had to husband its resources. In 1794 the
people of Mulhouse had to pay seventy limes per
viertel perhaps one might say 66s. per quarter
for wheat. That may not seem so very high a price
judged by present standards, but account must be
taken of the purchasing power of money and its
scarcity in those days. At last Mulhouse succeeded
in obtaining some grain from Swabia, by way of
Switzerland, but its inhabitants lived in constant
anxiety, hoping vainly for better times. Further
efforts were made to negotiate a satisfactory com-
mercial treaty with France, but the Directory did not
prove responsive. Yet matters could not remain as
ALSACE-LORRAINE 117
they were ; something had to be done if Mul house
was to be extricated from its extremely difficult
position.
The State Syndic at that time was Josue Hofer,
and the Burgomaster his relation Johannes Hofer, and
these two and a few others appear to have put their
heads together and to have come to the conclusion
that it would be best to take the same course as
Strasburg had taken a hundred and seventeen years
previously, and exchange independence for union with
France. France had long been their chief customer,
and from France they had derived most of their
supplies, and all the barriers which had since arisen
in those respects would necessarily disappear should
Mulhouse become French territory. She could not
claim to retain her ancient organization, as Strasburg
had retained hers for a hundred years or so ; for times
had changed, and the French Republic had cast most
ancient things to the winds. It would therefore be
necessary to come under her new administrative
methods. For the older men it was doubtless painful
to relinquish the independence and the somewhat
narrow social system transmitted to them by their
forefathers, and to which they themselves had been
accustomed all their lives. On the other hand, the
change would mean reunion with all their fellow-
Alsatians who had adopted a like course ; and to the
younger ones this change signified emancipation,
extension of opportunity, a general broadening of life,
participation in the destinies of a great nation which
in despite of many blunders, many acts of folly,
even of madness and occasionally of savagery had
sowed in the course of its Revolution and was still
sowing, however much its rulers might flounder,
precious seeds, which, in days to come, would yield a
118 TrfE TRUE STORY OF
real increase of liberty and a vast improvement of
social conditions in many lands.
The general Council and the Committee of Forty
presiding over the destinies of the little republic were
assembled, and the advisability of becoming united to
France was discussed. The only conditions specified
appear to have been exemption from the conscription,
then newly established by the Directory,* from
requisitions, and from the obligation of billeting troops
until after the next general peace. On those terms
97 members of the assembly voted for union with
France, only 5 votes being recorded against it. On
the morrow (January 4, 1798) the decision was
confirmed by a general assembly of burgesses at the
Church of Saint-Etienne, when 591 pronounced in its
favour and 15 against it. An Alsatian of Colmar
afterwards came to Mulhouse as French Commissary
to assist in adapting the local municipal arrangements
to the French system. The formal ceremony of
annexation took place on March 10, and in the
historical museum of the town there was formerly
preserved a tricolour hanging used on this occasion
and bearing the inscription : " The Republic of
Mulhouse reposes on the bosom of the French
Republic."
At that time, says an Alsatian writer, the town
had 38 streets, 800 houses, and 6000 inhabitants. If
material prosperity be proof of the wisdom of such an
action as the incorporation of Mulhouse with France,
then that action was a wise one. Less than fifty
years afterwards the town had so expanded that it
* The Directory's Conscription Law was very unpopular throughout
France, where voluntary enlistment had previously prevailed, and, in con-
junction with the forced Loan and the military reverses of the time, facilitated
the overthrow of the regime by Napoleon on his return from Egypt. Those
who hoped, however, that he might abolish conscription were soon undeceived.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 119
counted over 20,000 inhabitants, and every day some
7000 working folk repaired to it from neighbouring
villages.*
The accession of Napoleon to the Consulate was
welcomed in Alsace. The re-establishment of religion
pleased both the Catholic and the Protestant elements.
The Concordat with Pius VII was signed in 1801, and
the Protestant Church was recognized by a law passed
early in the following year, its ministers being at first
trained in a kind of seminary, though later a faculty
of Protestant theology was established at Strasburg.
Laws extending and regulating primary and secondary
education proved very beneficial. Great services were
rendered in educational matters by the Marquis de
Lezay-Marnezia, a native of Savoy, who became
Prefect of the Lower Rhine department. He began
life in the diplomatic service of the old regime, and
after contriving to survive the Reign of Terror became
a protege of Josephine, who ultimately brought him to
Napoleon's notice. Possessed of literary gifts, Lezay-
Marnezia wrote on a number of political questions,
translated Schiller's " Don Carlos," and edited a
volume of apophthegms and epigrams extracted from
the writings of Cardinal de Retz. Apart from those
matters, he took, like the many-sided man he was, a
keen interest in agriculture and industry. He intro-
duced the cultivation of sugar-beet into Lower Alsace,
as well as improved methods for cultivating and
treating tobacco, from which Strasburg derived much
benefit. He was also a great road-builder, and he
widely encouraged the planting of fruit-trees. He was
one of the best functionaries of his class that served
Napoleon, and certainly the administration of Lower
Alsace was never in better hands. I am uncertain
* See also pp. 22, 23, 43, 44, ante.
120 TH,E TRUE STORY OF
whether the first Restoration confirmed him in his
post, but he died at Strasburg from the effects of a
carriage accident in October 1814, when Napoleon
was at Elba.
The Great Captain's victories inspired no little
enthusiasm among the Alsatians. Many of his lieu-
tenants came from that province and the adjacent one
of Lorraine. The names of Ney, Lefebvre, Victor,
Kleber, Lasalle, Drouot, Rapp, Kellermann, Lobau,
Schramm, live in history, and there were numerous
others, equally brave and devoted, and sometimes
almost as able although less renowned. When after
the Battle of Leipzig the Austrians, Prussians,
Bavarians, and Russians crossed the Rhine and in-
vaded France, several of the Alsatian and Lorrainer
fortresses staunchly resisted the enemy, and none
more desperately than Huningen, defended by the
heroic Barbanegre. But the star of the Emperor set,
and even at his first downfall in 1814 greedy Prussia,
who had never had any connexion with Alsace,
impudently laid claim to the province as the price of
her services. It is interesting to note that Great
Britain and Russia combined to resist Prussia's
covetous demands and defeated them. In 1815,
however, the predatory Hohenzollerns contrived to
secure a part of the Saar valley, and Landau passed
to Rhenish Bavaria.
Apart from those losses the Bourbons came to
their own again. The first years of the Restoration
were unhappy ones in Alsace. Foreign troops occu-
pied most of the province. The harvests of 1816 and
1817 were scanty ones. Many food-stuffs and other
necessaries reached exorbitant prices. Moreover, the
Alsatians, with their liberal ideas, had little liking for
the Bourbons, who during the years of their eclipse
ALSACE-LORRAINE 121
had learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. Besides,
now that the King was restored, many members of
the Catholic clergy became unduly arrogant, imagin-
ing that they might henceforth do as they pleased.
The Protestants were not exactly persecuted, but
they were snubbed and cold-shouldered, particularly
in the time of the bigoted Charles X, by a zealous
officialdom. The trend of public opinion during the
Restoration is shown by the election of one of the
chief Liberal leaders of the period, Benjamin Constant,
as deputy for Strasburg, and by the boundless
enthusiasm with which another one, General Foy, was
received when he visited Alsace.
Other circumstances tended to confirm the Alsa-
tians in their Liberal views, which, it would be idle
to deny it, were sometimes tinged with Bonapartism,
kept alive by the numerous half-pay officers of
Napoleon's armies who had been virtually exiled to
the province. In those days Belfort was included in
the Upper Rhine department. It belonged, indeed,
to Alsace, and if so far I have only occasionally
referred to it in this narrative, it is because I prefer
to reserve a fuller account until I relate in a sub-
sequent chapter the circumstances under which this
fortress town was retained by France at the annexa-
tion of 1871. Here, however, it may be stated that
in 1821, Louis XVIII reigning, Belfort became the
chief scene of a conspiracy which had ramifications at
Mulhouse, Neuf-Brisach, Huningen, and other places.
The movement, directed against the Bourbons, was
both of a semi-Liberal and a semi-Bonapartist cha-
racter. Members of the wealthy Kcechlin family of
Mulhouse were concerned in it and assisted it finan-
cially. Various Liberal parliamentary leaders, such
as Manuel and Dupont de FEure, the famous jour-
122 THE TRUE STORY OF
nalist Armand Carrel, the brothers Scheffer, the
painters, and General de Lafayette were likewise
privy to the affair ; but in other respects the contem-
plated rising was prepared chiefly by former officers
of Napoleon. Scores of them, in all parts of Alsace,
made ready during the last months of 1821 to join
the rising, and a large number of soldiers, belonging
notably to the garrisons of Neuf-Brisach and Belfort,
could be relied upon for support.
Some of the forces were to seize and hold the
passes of the Vosges, and others were to march on
Colmar, then the capital of the Upper Rhine, arrest
the royal authorities there, and use the town as a
centre for future action. Now on the evening when
the rising was to take place a number of the half-pay
officers concerned in the affair dined together at
Belfort. Many of the soldiers of the garrison knew
or guessed that something was coming off that very
night, and some of them even got ready to co-operate
with the leaders of the plot. But a non-commissioned
officer blundered badly by going to inform a royalist
captain, who was not in the secret, that the men were
ready. The captain was momentarily puzzled, but
ended by divining the truth, and then hurried off to
inform the Commandant de place, who, after a short
delay, ordered the town gates to be closed. Mean-
time, however, the chief conspirators realized that the
plot was discovered and took to flight. Lafayette,
Armand Carrel, Henry Scheffer, the painter, and others
were expected to reach Belfort that night, and some
of those who escaped from the town hastened to
intercept them, and warn them to turn back. This
was done, Lafayette, who was met at Lure, making
the return journey to Paris with the utmost speed in
order that it might appear as if he had never left the
ALSACE-LORRAINE 123
city. Briefly, all the real leaders escaped, and the
Commandant of Belfort could only lay hands on two
officers and two civilians, each of whom was sentenced
to five years' imprisonment. It has been said that
the failure of the conspiracy was due largely to the
dilatoriness of Lafayette, who ought to have reached
Belfort sooner.
The affair had a tragic sequel. In 1820 one of
Napoleon's former officers, who had quitted the army,
but was still known as Colonel Caron, had been
acquitted on a charge of conspiracy tried by the
Chamber of Peers, and had then retired to Colmar,
where, after the collapse of the Belfort plot, he
devised a scheme for delivering the prisoners. He
was denounced, however, arrested and sent to Stras-
burg. His connexion with the army had been severed,
nevertheless he was court-martialled and sentenced to
be shot. This sentence was carried into effect on
October 1, 1822, and Caron's remains were interred
in the Strasburg cemetery of Saint-Urbain, outside
the former Porte d'Austerlitz, where, after the fall of
the elder Bourbon line, a stone was set up bearing
the inscription : " Here lies Lieutenant- Colonel Caron
who died for Liberty." * Both the method of his
trial and his execution had a bad effect on public
opinion. It was held strongly that he ought to have
been arraigned before a civil court, which would have
shown more leniency. Briefly, although there were
no disturbances, the general dislike of the Bourbon
regime was accentuated by this affair.
Charles X was even less popular than his brother
Louis XVIII. Nevertheless, when he visited Stras-
* His Christian names were Augustin Joseph, and he was forty-eight years
old at the time of his death. He had fought in several engagements, but his
military career was somewhat obscure.
124 THE TRUE STORY OF
burg, Colmar, and Mulhouse in September 1828, he
had quite apart from the official celebrations a
very good reception, which was due, perhaps, to the
circumstance that eighty-four years had elapsed since
a King of France had shown himself in Alsace, though
Napoleon, of course, had often passed that way.
Charles X seldom if ever did the right thing when
great issues were at stake, but in small matters he
not infrequently showed to advantage. Thus, on
being warned that he would find Mulhouse a hotbed
of Republicanism, he replied : " In that case I must
not take a military escort with me." And he abstained
from doing so. The incident pleased the people of
Mulhouse, who, after cheering the monarch, remarked
to one another that, all considered, he was, perhaps,
less black than he had been painted.
The Revolution of 1830 and the accession of
Louis Philippe seemed to promise a genuinely liberal
regime, and so the new King was well received when
he visited Alsace the following year. But discontent
was soon rife, and was fostered by the heavy taxation
of the times. Not only were there frequent demon-
strations in favour of the more democratic leaders,
but Strasburg became the scene of more than one
little conspiracy. It was probably a recollection of
the military Imperialist plots of Restoration days
that, in the autumn of 1836, prompted young Prince
Louis Napoleon subsequently Napoleon III to
choose the Alsatian capital for an attempt to proclaim
the Empire with the help of the garrison. The affair
proved a fiasco, and was dealt with so promptly by
the authorities that, according to the diary of a
Strasburg citizen now before me, the general public
knew nothing about it until three days afterwards,
when it was reported that Louis Napoleon, Colonel
ALSACE-LORRAINE 125
Vaudrey of the 4th Artillery, and a few other persons,
including the Prince's mistress, Mme. Gordon, were
under arrest in the local house of detention. Some
of the confederates, including Fialin, afterwards Duke
de Persigny, managed to escape. The Prince, says
the diarist I have mentioned, lodged in the Rue des
Orphelins, next door to the Brasserie des Quatre-
Vents, and a search made in his rooms resulted in the
discovery of powder, cartridges, and uniforms, as well
as a pair of general's epaulets. Mme. Gordon's
lodging was at No. 17 Rue Fontaine, where she
passed under the name of Brown.* The only officer
who openly sided with the Prince was Vaudrey,
whom I have mentioned, but it was five o'clock on
a bleak morning when Louis Napoleon harangued the
artillerymen at their barracks, and thus, apart from
the colonel, who was privy to the affair, the officers
were still lying snugly in bed. Some of the soldiers
cheered, but others wavered, and the linesmen of the
26th Regiment would not join the movement, so that
the attempt collapsed. Louis Napoleon was pardoned
by Louis Philippe on consenting to go to America
(where he remained for as short a time as possible),
and the eleven days' trial of his accomplices in the
ensuing month of January resulted in their acquittal.
They were defended by some notable Parisian advo-
cates, in whose honour, I observe, a banquet was
given by a number of the leading people of Strasburg.
This shows that Bonapartism was by no means dead
there.
The system of elementary education in Alsace was
again improved in 1837, and the French language
spread more and more widely. This period was also
* I have given various particulars about this woman in my book, " The
Court of the Tuileries, 1852-70." (Chatto and Windus.)
126 THE TRUE STORY OF
one of many improvements in means of communica-
tion. The first Alsatian railway line that from
Thann to Mulhouse was opened in 1839. Two years
later came one from Strasburg to Basle, and at the
same time the line from Paris to Strasburg was
begun. In 1834 the Rhone and Rhine Canal was
inaugurated, being soon followed by that of the
Marne and the Rhine and a branch canal connecting
the Rhone waterway with the 111. Meantime there
was still a certain amount of unrest and some un-
pleasant bickering between Alsatian Catholics and
Protestants. A writer named Busch was prosecuted
for producing a book which the Jesuits regarded as
libellous, but a Strasburg jury acquitted him.
In 1846 the question of Russian Poland came to
the front in several countries, considerable feeling
being displayed, particularly in France, respecting
the deportation of many Poles to Siberia. Prince
Metternich, then seventy-three years old, was still
governing the various races of Austria with stubborn
despotism, and Galicia being part of Poland, he
thought fit to intervene apropos of the agitation
which was taking place in France. He commissioned
Count Apponyi, Austrian Ambassador in Paris, to
inform Guizot, then Louis Philippe's chief Minister,
that if this agitation did not cease, Austria would
forcibly reannex Alsace and Lorraine to Germany.
Metternich's threats, being divulged, provoked violent
protests from Strasburg and the other Alsatian towns.
Nevertheless, the Austrian, German, and Russian
Press embarked on a campaign of calumny, declaring
that the French were not entitled to raise any Polish
question as they treated the Alsatian people with
abominable cruelty ! There was not one word of
truth in that assertion ; and towards the end of 1846
ALSACE-LORRAINE 127
a German writer named Biedermann, a professor at
Leipzig University, published a book on Alsace, which
he had repeatedly visited, and had the fairness and
courage to declare that no cruelty whatever was
shown to the inhabitants, whom he had found
perfectly satisfied with their French nationality.
Considerable discontent undoubtedly prevailed,
but it was common to all France. There was a great
scarcity of cereals, the price of which became early
in 1847 as high as it had been some thirty years
previously, when two successive harvests failed. But
this state of affairs was not peculiar to France. We
ourselves had our " Hungry Forties " and our Corn
Law agitation. As for Alsace, the municipalities did
their utmost to provide for the public needs by
buying grain and flour wherever possible, and fixing
the price of bread at such a figure as to place the
staff of life within reach even of poor consumers. The
various transactions resulted in considerable losses to
the municipalities, and these losses had to be met by
increased taxation on the wealthier folk of the com-
munity. The poorer ones, however, were at least
able to obtain bread. The municipality of Strasburg
also started relief works an empirical remedy, no
doubt, but one which, for the time being, certainly
provided a considerable number of people with the
means of subsistence.
The cause of the general discontent among the
masses, and also in part of the distress which arose in
many parts of France, lay in the political system of
the time. There was an extremely restricted fran-
chise, in such wise that the bulk of the nation had
no voice in its government. And yet less than half
a century had elapsed since the dawn of the French
Revolution. All the Liberal elements in France
128 THE TRUE STORY OF
embarked, then, on a great campaign for Reform,
and Alsace took a notable part in it. The agitation
increased when various cases of corruption and
jobbery in high places were brought to light. Many
more were suspected, and not without good reason.
In the result, on February 24, 1848, Louis Philippe
lost his throne, and the Second French Republic was
proclaimed.
Once again Alsace became all enthusiasm. That
same year was the bicentenary of the Treaty of
Westphalia, which had acknowledged Alsace (Stras-
burg and Mulhouse excepted) as part of France.
The Alsatians resolved to celebrate this memorable
event by a number of great festivals. Whatever the
historical circumstances might be, Strasburg and
Mulhouse eagerly participated in these rejoicings.
There were fetes also at Colmar, Minister, Cernay,
Thann, Wesserling, Schlestadt, Saverne, Barr, and
other places. In a word, the whole province gave
itself up to festivity. Thousands of National Guards
assembled at Strasburg. Deputations poured in from
Lorraine and other adjacent parts of France. Flags
Waved, music sounded, banquets were given, speeches
delivered, and houses illuminated in the evening, when
the lads and the girls, and older folk also, footed it
merrily in the squares and cross ways. Two symbolic
groups figured in the great afternoon procession one
showing France and Alsace embracing, and the other
Alsace, as warden of the frontier, proudly defending
France. . . . Alas !
But the Second Republic reposed on no bed of
roses. It was face to face with a most difficult
situation, the outcome of all the mismanagement
of Louis Philippe's time, and its Government un-
doubtedly made some deplorable mistakes. When
:
ALSACE-LORRAINE 129
120,000 men of the National Workshops in Paris
ere cast adrift without means of subsistence, a fierce
surrection burst forth.* For four days the city
was given over to bloodshed. General Brea and his
ide-de-camp were assassinated ; Mgr. Affre, the
rchbishop, was struck down on a barricade whilst
orting the combatants to cease the fratricidal
ruggle. Cavaignac at last put down the rebellion,
and became Chief of the Executive, with virtually
dictatorial powers. Nevertheless there was ebullition
in other parts of the country, Alsace included.
When Prince Louis Napoleon came forward as a
candidate for the Presidency of the Republic he
found numerous Alsatian supporters. His foolish
enterprise at Strasburg in 1836 and his equally
foolish descent on Boulogne in 1840 were overlooked,
condoned. At this time only forty-four years had
elapsed since the foundation of the First Empire,
only thirty-three since its final overthrow, only
twenty-seven since Napoleon's death at St. Helena,
and only eight since his remains had been brought
back to Paris, and deposited, with much pomp and
ceremony, under the dome of the Invalides. Thus
the Proud Legend was still a living one, a halo still
surrounded the Great Captain's name, many men
whom he had led to victory were still living, time had
only suffused his deeds and theirs with a glamour of
phenomenal glory, and so France, in part carried
away by the memory of mighty achievements, and
in part tired of the sterile strife of parties and appre-
hensive of the wild enterprises of extremists, elected
the heir of the Bonapartes as her President by
* Let our rulers profit by the lessons of history and be careful how, when
the Great War ends, they treat the millions of workers now in Government
or controlled establishments.
130 THE TRUE STORY OF
5,434,226 votes. Few of those voters imagined at
the time that they were not giving themselves to
another Napoleon the Great, but to a Napoleon the
Little.
When the oath of fidelity to the Constitution was
administered to the new Chief of the State, he
answered, " I swear it." " I ask God to witness the
oath which has just been taken," said the President
of the Assembly. Then Louis Napoleon addressed
the deputies, his first words being : " I should regard
as enemies of the country all those who by illegal
means should attempt to alter the form of Govern-
ment which you have established." Yet in December
1851 came the coup d'etat, and in December the
following year the establishment of a Second Empire,
which collapsed in the disaster of Sedan, leaving
France to fight on as best she could in the hope of
being able to save Alsace-Lorraine, which Bismarck
bluntly told Jules Favre at Ferrieres, soon after the
Empire's fall, would be part of the price that must
be paid for peace.
The policy pursued during Louis Napoleon's pre-
sidency indisposed many Alsatian Republicans, who
participated in various little plots. From time to
time there were perquisitions, arrests, and trials,
which last, owing to the Liberalism of Alsatian judges
and juries, generally ended in acquittals. In the
summer of 1849 cholera raged in Alsace, where it
carried off 20,000 people. In August the following
year Louis Napoleon visited the province. He had
just been badly received in Franche-Comte, Besanon
positively hooting him. The Alsatians were more
circumspect, and at Mulhouse, Colmar, and Strasburg
contented themselves with crying " Vive la R6pub-
lique 1 " They associated the Republican regime
ALSACE-LORRAINE 131
with peace, and feared lest the re-establishment of
the Empire should signify war the consequences of
which they, inhabiting a frontier province, would be
the first to feel. It stirred the imagination to talk of
the glories of the former Napoleonic period, but
practical Alsatians, who remembered days of invasion,
desired a peaceful regime. That view, indeed, was
held in most parts of France, and Louis Napoleon
knew it, and for that very reason delivered himself at
Bordeaux of the famous apophthegm : L* Empire, c'est
la paix (" The Empire will mean peace ").
Although the Prince-President was already break-
ing his solemn oath to the Constitution, millions of
people believed in the promise of Bordeaux. It
quieted a thousand apprehensions and won over a
mass of hesitating opinion. Moreover, there was a
most reactionary majority in the National Assembly,
and this inclined many Liberal people to support the
President against the legislature. After the coup
d'etat, however, several Republican Alsatian deputies,
including Kestner of Mulhouse and Edmond Valentin,
who became Prefect of Strasburg during the memor-
able siege of 1870, as well as other prominent men,
were arrested and exiled or deported. Other Repub-
licans were able to escape into Swiss territory.
Strenuous Government pressure was then exercised
on every side. All kinds of promises, all kinds of
threats w r ere employed, in such wise that the plebi-
scitum taken to ratify the coup d'etat resulted in
favour of Louis Napoleon. In the whole province
only 15,414 votes were officially recorded against
him. I say officially, because in Alsace, as elsewhere,
the ballot-boxes were tampered with in many localities.
During the ensuing month of December the citadel of
Strasburg thundered forth a salute of 101 guns in
132 THE TRUE STORY OF
honour of the proclamation of an Empire, which was
to bring the direst misfortune upon all Alsace.
The rule of Napoleon III was never really popular
in the Alsatian towns, but, as is well known, the
Emperor laid himself out in all sorts of ways to
please the peasantry throughout France, and in this
matter he succeeded, in Alsace as in other provinces.
The Strasburg municipality being, however, none to
his liking, he arbitrarily revoked it in 1854 and
appointed a commission to control the affairs of the
town. Two years later the young Archduke Maxi-
milian of Austria made a short stay in the Alsatian
capital, having come to France on his first visit to
Napoleon. The intercourse which ensued proved
fatal to the Austrian prince, who, eight years later,
was persuaded to become Emperor of Mexico, and
in 1867, having been abandoned by his patron, was
shot at Queretaro. Scarcely had he quitted Alsace
in 1856 when a latent agitation became acute there.
It was caused by a conflict which had arisen between
the Swiss Confederation and the King of Prussia,
then Frederick William IV, the monarch who was
addicted to Clicquot champagne, and who, losing
control of the little brains he possessed Virchow
averred that he had none at all contracted the nasty
habit of washing his face with his soup.*
In 185t> this monarch's fixed idea was to exercise
his sovereign rights over the Swiss canton of Neuf-
chatel, which in 1815, with the county of Valengin,
had been assigned as a principality to Frederick
William III. However, during the great year of
revolutions and insurrections, 1848, the Switzers of
* He died in 1861, when he was succeeded by his younger brother, the
future Emperor William I (grandfather of the present Kaiser), who since
1857 had acted as Regent of Prussia.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 133
Neufchatel rose against their harsh Prussian masters,
drove them out of the canton, and joined the Con-
federation. Frederick William IV was beset by so
much trouble at home at this juncture that for the
time he had to resign himself to the loss ; but in 1853,
resolving to assert himself, he once more seized the
town with the help of sundry partisans, and set up
the Prussian flag. But again were the Prussians and
their adherents attacked by the Swiss of the rural
districts, and whilst fifteen of them were killed and
thirty wounded, three hundred were taken prisoners.
Thereupon Frederick William threatened the Federal
authorities, who refused, however, to recognize his
claims.
The dispute became more and more embittered,
and at last the infuriated Prussian king requested
Baden, Bavaria, and Wiirttemberg to allow him to
march an army of 135,000 men through their territory
for the purpose of invading Switzerland. This created
great agitation, even alarm, in Alsace, for it was
known that France would not tolerate such an
invasion. Thus war with Prussia might well ensue.
The matter attracted some attention at the Peace
Conference in Paris at the close of the Crimean War.
Meantime the Swiss fortified their frontiers and
assembled troops under the orders of General Dufour,
the only general, I believe, that Switzerland has had
in modern times at least the highest rank in her
army nowadays is that of colonel. The assistance of
France having been solicited by the Swiss authorities,
the Prussian monarch contented himself for the nonce
with demanding the release of the prisoners held by
the people of Neufchatel. The latter refused the
release unless Frederick William would renounce his
pretensions. By French advice, however, the pri-
134 THE TRUE STORY OF
soners were set free unconditionally, and a conference
of the Great Powers ensued in Paris in May 1857.
Frederick William then demanded a large indemnity
from Switzerland in return for the surrender of his
rights. But Napoleon III, through his representative
and illegitimate cousin, Count Walewski, hinted at a
declaration of war, and as Prussia was not then
prepared to encounter France in the field, the King
gave way, and on the understanding that Switzerland
should pay for the damage done to Prussian property
during the insurrection, renounced his sovereignty
over Neufchatel.
A glance at a map will show how dangerous it
would have been for France to have had such a
Power as Prussia * installed on her Jurassian frontier,
with easy access to Basle and Upper Alsace. It was
therefore incumbent on her, in her own interest, to
support the people of Neufchatel and the Swiss
generally. This affair, however, was one of the
indirect causes of the war of 1870. As Bismarck
said long afterwards : " Napoleon III would not let
us have Neufchatel. Well, we have taken Alsace,
quid pro quo"
However sinister may have been the beginning
and however tragical the end of the Second Empire,
the intervening period was certainly one of steadily
* It is true that the principality of Neufchatel was only a personal appanage
and had nothing to do with the Prussian State ; but enough has been said
to show that Frederick William was prepared to employ all the resources of
his kingdom, even to the point of seizing and holding this strip of Switzerland
by force of arms. Thus the Swiss, even those of Germanic origin, have never
had any liking for Prussia. The present Kaiser has shown himself so unscru-
pulous that should the Great War end in his favour (which Heaven forbid !)
he would be quite the man to revive a claim to Neufchatel, on the ground
that no predecessor of his had a right to alienate a part of his inheritance.
Louis XIV's " War of Devolution " was based on that theory, a very conve-
nient one for those who regard solemn covenants as scraps of paper. Great
Britain was a party to the cession of Neufchatel in 1857.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 135
increasing material prosperity. In 1852, the first
year after the coup d'etat, the various imports into
France represented a value of 55,780,000. In 1869,
the year before the Franco-German War, their value
was 160,000,000. In the same period the exports
rose from 67,200,000 to 159,760,000, this being the
third year that their value was slightly inferior to
that of the imports. The latter were only exceeded
again in 1872, after the Franco-German War and the
Commune, and the denunciation of the treaties of
commerce. All kinds of industries and branches of
commerce made great progress during the imperial
period. For instance, whereas in 1852 the French
pits only produced 4,904,000 metric tons of coal, in
1869 their output, in response to the ever-increasing
demands of industry, had risen to 13,464,000 metric
tons. The iron ore which was raised and smelted
doubled in quantity between the years I have men-
tioned. In 1869 the output in metallurgical industry
was valued at nearly nineteen millions sterling, or
about 7,700,000 more than in 1852. There were
great increases in other industries.
I find also that whereas in 1853 the total length
of the French railway lines was but 2568 miles, it
had become 10,750 miles in 1869. As for the postal
receipts, a good test of a nation's commercial activity,
these increased from 1,861,000 in 1852 to more than
3,785,000 in 1869. Take another test: French
manufacturers and tradesfolk pay a fixed tax called
a patente, a licence as it were. In 1852 this tax
produced 1,485,000, and in the last full year of the
Empire 2,581,000. Finally, in 1869 the nation was
able to pay more than 23 millions sterling in direct
State taxation, against 16J millions paid at the
advent of the Empire ; and the total receipts of the
136 TITE TRUE STORY OF
French Treasury exceeded 78,472,000, whereas seven-
teen years previously they had been rather less than
59,494,000.
The foregoing paragraph may appear irrelevant
to my subject. But I would point out that Alsace
participated largely in France's increased prosperity.
In this connexion some account was given in a former
chapter of the development of trade at Mulhouse.
Moreover, I have quoted the foregoing figures because
whilst censuring the Second French Empire from the
standpoint of political morality, it is only fair that I
should make some mention of its one redeeming
feature. But a nation's material prosperity is not
everything in its life. Great was our prosperity
before the present war began, and some folk wished
us to rest content with clinging to it and " capturing
German trade," instead of joining in the immortal
fray for the world's freedom. We preferred, however,
to cast our prosperity and our resources, as well as
our arms, into the Scales of Justice, and in doing so
we took the only course befitting men of honour.
I frankly admit, then, the great material prosperity
of France under her Second Empire. The figures I
have given, and which are extracted from various
issues of the official Annuaire statistique de la France,
may seem small at the present day, but they have to
be considered in connexion with the general wealth
and requirements of the period to which they apply.
From time to time there were, naturally enough,
various set-backs. Financial scandals and heavy
failures occurred, and in 1863 Alsace suffered from
the collapse of some important houses. Three years
later there was unrest, anxiety, even alarm, in con-
nexion with the war between Prussia and Austria,
which, although a brief one it is known as the
ALSACE-LORRAINE 137
Seven Weeks' War quite transformed the condition
of affairs in Germany, making Prussia its predominant
Power. Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie were
to have visited Strasburg that year, but the threaten-
ing situation kept them in Paris.
Two years later a notable personage, mentioned in
connexion with the Neufchatel affair, passed away at
the Hotel de la Ville de Paris in the Alsatian capital.
This was Count Walewski, who had succeeded the
Duke de Morny, Napoleon Ill's illegitimate half-
brother, as President of the Corps Legislatif . Walewski
himself was an illegitimate son of Napoleon I, and if
ever the modern Conqueror stamped his likeness upon
any child of his, he did so in Walewski's case. The
resemblance was striking both in face and in figure.
Had it been possible to imagine Napoleon in " mufti,"
you would have said on seeing Walewski : " There he
is ! " Prince Napoleon Jerome certainly had the
Napoleonic face, but he was a much bigger man than
the Emperor. At the same time Walewski differed
from his father in disposition and in manners. These
he derived from his mother, the beautiful Polish
countess who was one of the few women that really
loved Napoleon. In a word, the son was urbane,
soft-spoken, a perfect gentleman in his ways. After
serving for a short time in a regiment of hussars he
had entered the diplomatic service during the reign of
Louis Philippe. Had he lived longer he might pos-
sibly Jaave arrested the Empire on the downward
course which it took after his death.
From 1866 onward Alsace ranged itself largely
on the side of the parliamentary Opposition to the
Empire. In a comparatively recent book of mine,
' In Seven Lands," * I mentioned a few incidents in
* Chatto and Windus, 1916.
138 THfE TRUE STORY OF
the Alsatian history of this period, and it may be
allowable for me to refer to them again here. After
the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, a zealous propa-
ganda in furtherance of German claims on Alsace-
Lorraine was carried on in Germany by means of
geographies and histories, which designated Alsace,
particularly, as a lost land which it was the duty of
every patriotic German to recover and redeem. No
regard was shown for real history or for former
treaties, covenants, and cessions. The circumstances
under which Strasburg became French territory were
absolutely falsified, whilst those attending Mulhouse's
union with France were conveniently ignored. The
theory started in the forties, that the Alsatians were
persecuted by the French, was revived. " Yonder,
near the Vosges," wrote a German versifier, " a lost
treasure lies. There must German blood be freed
from hellish sway." A man named Richard Boeck
particularly distinguished himself by his ardour in
claiming Alsace for Germany. In the province itself,
one must admit it would be absurd to shirk facts
that there existed a small party of clericals, both
Catholic and Protestant, who without daring to go so
far as to advocate annexation to Germany, did their
utmost to resist the further diffusion of the French
language.* A Strasburg cure named Cazeaux and a
pastor called Baum based their objections to French
on religious and moral grounds. It had been, said
they, the language of the infidel Voltaire, and it was
that of the Parisians, who were steeped in vice and
corruption.
The French capital certainly offered numerous
scenes of folly and depravity. But people dwelling
at a distance, and trippers bent on having a " good
* These matters are dealt with more fully in my seventh chapter.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 139
time " in the midst of coarse pleasures, have long
misjudged the great city. To them Paris has meant
the Boulevards, the caboulots of Montmartre, the
brasseries of the Quartier Latin, the Moulin Rouge,
the Chat Noir, the Bal Bullier, and so on. For them,
those places and similar ones, and the phases of life
to be observed there, have signified everything. It
is as though London were judged by the standard
of Piccadilly and Coventry Street, Giro's and other
swagger dens. In the case of Paris, those who in a
spirit of Puritanical fanaticism have denounced it as
the modern Babylon have overlooked the fact that it
is far more a city of strenuous work, a city of many
manufactures, of learning, art, invention, and dis-
covery, contributing powerfully to the advancement
of mankind. The sectarian Alsatians to whom I have
referred made a similar mistake. In their denuncia-
tions of Paris, whatever solicitude they may have
affected for their respective flocks, they were helping
on the designs of Germany, and it is quite possible
that they were incited to the course they took by
German gold. There is not a shadow of a doubt that
directly Bismarck had settled accounts with Austria
he prepared for a war with France for the express
purpose of seizing Alsace-Lorraine.
Whilst attempts were being made to create a
current of pro-German opinion in Alsace two famous
authors were conjointly producing a series of works
which, whilst picturing Alsatian manners and customs
in former times, gave vivid glimpses of the sufferings
caused by warfare even when it was waged with
success as well as when it became invasion on the part
of a ruthless enemy. These authors were Emile
Erckmann, a native of Phalsbourg, and Alexandre
Chatrian, born at Soldatenthal, localities situated on
140 THfe TRUE STORY OF
the confines of Alsace and Lorraine. The works of
Krckmann-Chatrian, notably the series called " Les
Romans Nationaux," breathed a spirit of attachment
to France. Written in French, they were translated
into many languages, and sold widely all the world
over. I find that in some instances editions in
German were prepared expressly for circulation in
those rural districts of Alsace where the knowledge of
French was more or less restricted. In that con-
nexion it may be mentioned that in 1870 considerably
more than a third of the population of Alsace was as
conversant with French as with German, reading and
writing both languages, and that the former one was
making more and more headway every day among
the younger generations. In such a matter the
Imperial Government ought to have let well alone ;
but at one period it made the mistake of trying to
force French upon the inhabitants of little out-of-the-
way hamlets to the absolute exclusion of the Germanic
dialects to which they were accustomed.
At last came the war of 1870. In another chapter
I shall say something respecting the engagements
which were fought and the sieges which occurred
in Alsace and Lorraine, and also respecting the
conduct of the German commanders and soldiers
there, and the attitude of the invaded population.
Here I will only add a few remarks. When the
question of declaring war arose in the French Corps
Legislatif all the Alsatian deputies, excepting two,
voted for it, though they represented various shades
of political opinion. As a matter of fact, owing to
the machinations of Bismarck, war could not, at that
moment, have been averted, unless, indeed, France
had been prepared to grovel in the very dust at the
feet of Prussia. That she could not, would not, do.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 141
The small minority which voted against the war did
so mainly to mark their opposition to the Empire,
their distrust of its policy, at the same time well
knowing that their votes could not even delay hos-
tilities for a moment. The Alsatian deputies, by
ranging themselves on the side of the majority, at
least proclaimed their solidarity with the bulk of the
legislature and the antipathy with which they regarded
Prussia. Very few and far between, moreover, were
those Frenchmen who then feared that their armies
might incur reverses. Not one in ten thousand
imagined that there was anything seriously amiss
with the Empire's military organization. Thiers had
some misgivings, but Gambetta declared adversary
of the Empire though he was confidently anticipated
victories, which, welcome as they would prove to
French patriotism, would at the same time unfortu-
nately consolidate the regime born of the coup d'etat.
As we all know, the sequel was very different.
THE STORY OF LORRAINE
(FROM EARLY TIMES TO THE LAST NATIVE DUKES)
Early period : Extent of the Kingdom of Lotharingia : Beneficiary
and Hereditary Dukes : Disruption of the Kingdom : Suzerainty of
the Emperors : Union of Bar and Lorraine : The House of Anjou :
Evolution towards France : The Three Bishoprics Metz, Verdun,
and Toul : French Occupation of Lorraine : Vicissitudes of
Charles IV : The Last Dukes : The Metz Jews : Offences and
Penalties : Taxation and Industry : Duke Leopold's Rule :
Francis III exchanges Lorraine for Tuscany.
IT is unnecessary for me to sketch the history of
Lorraine as fully as I have sketched that of Alsace, for
whereas the Germans annexed the whole of the latter
province in 1871, they took only a portion of Lorraine,
such as it had become in modern times, and their
motives for this appropriation were not the same as
those which they alleged in the case of Alsace. In
regard to Lorraine, indeed, they were more mindful
of strategical and industrial considerations than of
the various ethnographical grounds set forth as
reasons for annexation by the pedantic professors of
their universities. According to the Pan-Germanists
there is hardly a country in the world to which their
nation cannot assert some kind of claim. As certain
Saxons settled in our country long ago, England
ought to be an appanage of Germany. As a Germanic
race called the Franks overran Gaul, modern France
ought also to be a German dependency. Hitherto,
however, instead of claiming the country in its en-
tirety the Germans have been considerate enough to
142
ALSACE-LORRAINE 143
nibble at it, just appropriating frontier parts at con-
venient opportunities. The Pan-Germanic claims in
regard to Lorraine, or rather the old kingdom of
Lotharingia, would provide a pretext for seizing a
great deal of territory forming not only part of France
but of other countries also. When in 855, six days
before his father's death, Lothair II came into pos-
session of the Lotharingian kingdom which had been
carved out of parts of Charlemagne's Empire, he
found himself in the possession of the following lands,
of which, in order to facilitate identification, I give
the modern names : In Switzerland, the Valais and
the Genevois, the cantons of Freiburg, Soleure, and
Berne, and the diocese of Basle. In the Netherlands,
Liege, Limburg, Brabant, Guelders, Namur, Hainault,
Utrecht, and Zeeland. In Germany itself, the Pala-
tinate west of the Rhine, with Treves and Cologne.
Next Luxemburg and Alsace ; and in modern France,
Bar, Lorraine, and Franche-Comte. Moreover, in the
year 863, on the death of his younger brother Charles,
Lothair inherited Provence, the Lyonnais, the Vien-
nois, the Vivarais and the Pays d'Uzes. In later
times one finds some of the Germanic Emperors
styling themselves Kings of Provence and Kings of
Aries, and some of the original Dauphins acknow-
ledged the Imperial suzerainty. Thus the zealous
Pan-German, bravely defying ridicule, asserts : " This,
that, and the other ought to be ours. They belonged
to us not long after the Year One ; I can prove it by
ancient Chronicles ! "
When Lothair II a somewhat disreputable prince
who put away his wife in order to live in dalliance
with a mistress, on which account he was excommuni-
cated by one of the Popes died in 869, his dominions
were appropriated by his uncle Charles the Bald.
144 THE TRUE STORY OF
Charles's brother, Louis the Germanic, compelled
him, however, to divide the territory. Afterwards,
Louis dying, Charles seized all his States, but had to
share them with Louis' son called "the Saxon."
Later, a certain Hugh, Duke of Alsace,* and the
illegitimate offspring of Lothair II by his mistress
Waldreda, claimed the Lotharingian kingdom, but
was defeated and had his eyes put out. Henry of
Franconia had then become by imperial appointment
Duke of Lorraine. After Charles the Fat had been
deposed in 887 this State, like Alsace and Germany,
passed to his nephew Arnoul or Arnulf, and then to the
latter's natural son Swentibold, of whom I previously
gave some account.f On Swentibold's downfall the
Lorrainers virtually handed themselves over to Charles
the Simple, King of France. Thus there were many
fluctuations. Lothair's former kingdom had few
natural frontiers and no ethnical basis, peopled as
it was by a variety of races. In the lands, however,
to which the name of Lorraine became applied in
more modern times it may be taken that the Celto-
Gallic element prevailed over that of the Germanic
intruders. Scientists claim that a brachycephalic
type of skull, which was that of the ancient Gauls,
has always predominated among the Lorrainers. J
On the other hand, the country became at an
early date a source of much contention and strife
between France and Germany. Both claimed control
over it, but undoubtedly the first sovereigns of
the so-called Holy Roman Empire appointed the
Dukes by whom the territory was governed, and
these Dukes became the only effective rulers.
In the ninth and tenth centuries, however, there
* See p. 67, ante. f See p. 67, ante.
| This matter is dealt with more fully in chapter vii.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 145
were several invasions. Attila's hordes had overrun
the country at the close of the Gallo-Roman period,
and on seizing Metz had destroyed nearly all its
Roman edifices of any note. The years 910, 917,
926, and 927 witnessed the irruption of other bar-
barians, who are also called Huns by some of the old
chroniclers. Thus the nobles who attempted to rule
Lorraine enjoyed no easy times. At last the Em-
peror Otho the Great, after appointing, first, Henry
Duke of Saxony, and, secondly, Conrad the Red, Duke
of Rhenish France, to govern the territory, removed
the latter and bestowed the dignity on his own brother
Bruno, who was then Archbishop of Cologne. Bruno
divided the different regions into Upper and Lower
Lorraine, and ranking as a kind of Archduke, ap-
pointed various subordinate dukes to administer
different parts. He created, for instance, a Duke of
Brabant and a Duke of Liege, and placed Frederic
or Ferry I, Count of Bar, son of a count or mayor of
the palace of the time of Charles the Simple, at the
head of Upper, otherwise French, Lorraine. Bar, be
it said, comprised most of the Meuse country between
French Lorraine and Champagne, and Ferry had
married Beatrix, sister of Hugh Capet, the founder of
the French Capetian dynasty.
The dukedoms which I have mentioned were simply
benefices held only for life or during good behaviour ;
but in later times the fact that a member of one or
another house had been placed at some period or
other at the head of some particular duchy gave rise
to all sorts of claims, which not unfrequently were
fought out on the battlefield. Moreover, according to
the relative power of the French or the German rulers
one or the other exercised the right of appointment
to these dukedoms, and at some moments great con-
ic
146 TH'E TRUE STORY OF
fusion prevailed as to who might really be the rightful
duke.
When Bruno divided Upper from Lower Lorraine
the former included all French Lorraine and some
additional territory. The second comprised most, if
not all, of modern Belgium, together with the Moselle
and part of the Rhenish country. Most of Lower
Lorraine became known later as the Duchy of Brabant,
which in 1089 the Emperor Henry IV bestowed on the
famous Godefroy de Bouillon, of the First Crusade.
Brabant afterwards became a hereditary duchy, and
ultimately passed to the Burgundian house. The
position was complicated, however, by the fact that
the chief bishops of Lower Lorraine those of Utrecht,
Treves, Cologne, Metz, Liege, Verdun, etc. gradually
became more and more independent and increased the
territorial possessions of their sees. Like the Dukes
themselves they were immediate feudatories of the
Empire, though the Archbishops of Treves endea-
voured to exercise temporal as well as spiritual
jurisdiction over other prelates.
Hugh Capet, on coming to the front in France,
had considerable trouble in asserting his supremacy
there, and therefore gave little attention to the fate
of either Upper or Lower Lorraine. It would seem,
however, that a grand-nephew of his, called Albert of
Alsace, was appointed Duke of Upper Lorraine by the
Emperor Henry III in 1046. From Albert's time, or
rather that of his son Gerard, styled Count in, not of,
Alsace, the duchy became hereditary. Gerard appears
to have owned several lordships in Upper Lorraine and
these gave him some sort of claim to succeed his
father in the ducal dignity, but according to one ac-
count he did not do so by right of birth, but assembled
the Lorraine nobles to confirm him in the position.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 14,7
Gerard died in 1070, and from that time until the
earlier part of the fifteenth century his heirs in tail
male continued to rule Upper Lorraine. Charles, called
the Bold, who succeeded in 1391, lost both his sons
while they were still young. He had, however, two
daughters, named respectively Isabella and Catherine.
The latter married a Margrave of Baden, and Charles
selected Isabella as heiress of Lorraine. To carry this
plan into effect he convoked the chivalry of the
duchy, and on December 13, 1425, the eighty-four
nobles who attended the gathering signed a covenant
declaring that in default of direct heirs male the
duchy should pass to the nearest female member of the
reigning house. Isabella took as her husband Rene
of Anjou, who at this time held the adjacent duchy of
Bar.
Bar also was a State in which female succession
was acknowledged. This had occurred as far back
as 1027 when a Duchess Sophia exercised governing
rights there under French suzerainty. She married a
Count of Mousson and Montbeliard of the same stock
as the early Counts of Ferrette, who were mentioned
in my sketch of Alsatian history.* Sophia's line
lasted until the early years of the fifteenth century,
when Bar (raised from the rank of a county to that
of a duchy by John of France in 1355) was held
by a certain Duke Robert. He was followed by his
brother Louis, Cardinal Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne,
who surrendered the duchy to his grand-nephew
Ren6 of Anjou, husband of Isabella of Lorraine.
Anjou had undergone many vicissitudes since the days
when John Lackland lost it. From the French
crown it had passed, with Maine, to Charles, the
younger brother of Saint Louis. Later, a son of
* See pp. 77, 78, ante.
148 THt; TRUE STORY OF
Philip the Hardy of France had married the heiress.
Afterwards had come a son of John of France,
named Louis, whose eldest grandson, Louis III, died
without posterity, whereupon his younger brother
Rene" succeeded both to Anjou and to Maine, as
well as to the county of Provence and the
claims of the Angevin line to the kingdom of
Naples. The last named he never secured, never-
theless he lives in historical romance as the good
King Rene.
As I have shown, he was by descent a prince of the
House of France, and indeed from the time of Albert
and Gerard of Alsace, who were Capetians, down to the
reign of King Stanislas the territory now known as
Lorraine was always ruled by French Princes. Before
Rene's time, in fact as far back as the eleventh century,
Bar and Lorraine had often been at variance, the
rulers of these duchies generally being quarrelsome,
pugnacious men. The union of the two little States
seemed to offer promise of a better future. Isabella
and Rene had to contend, however, in regard to
Lorraine, against a junior branch of that duchy's
house, represented by the Count of Vaudemont, who
attempted to assert his claims by force of arms, but
failed in his endeavour. The Angevin dynasty resided
little in Lorraine. It took less interest in this tangible
possession than in its claims on Naples and Sicily.
Whilst, however, its members were fighting abroad
they confided the authority in Lorraine to various
regents, whose administration was generally meri-
torious. There had previously been a period when
the Lorraine communes had asserted themselves and
ended by securing a considerable degree of autonomy.
Powerful corporations had also sprung up, to the
great advantage of the Third Estate. By a charter
ALSACE-LORRAINE 149
which Rene granted in 1448, the glass- workers of
Lorraine were assimilated to the nobility.
In 1453 Rene surrendered Lorraine and Bar to his
eldest son John, who married Marie de Bourbon, and
left the duchies to their son Nicholas. A junior
branch afterwards succeeded, its first Duke, Rene II,
becoming historically famous as the adversary of
Charles the Rash of Burgundy, who made a wild
attempt to reconstitute some such kingdom of Lothar-
ingia as that which had been formed at the dismem-
berment of Charlemagne's empire. Charles at first
overran the greater part of Lorraine and even seized
the town of Nancy, but in February 1477 he was
slain in a memorable battle fought outside the town
walls. Rene II afterwards endeavoured to assert the
Italian claims of his house, but failing in that enter-
prise he virtually renounced warfare and set himself
to consolidate the States he had inherited.
I mentioned previously that at quite an early
date many bishoprics of the original Lorraine had
made themselves virtually independent. Two of
these sees, Metz and Toul, were enclaves in Rene's
territory. A third, Verdun, was on its confines. The
Duke contrived to get control of these dioceses by
securing that of Toul for one of his uncles, and those
of Metz and Verdun for his third and fourth sons. In
one way and another he extended his sway consider-
ably, and to increase the influence of his house abroad
he ordered that all younger sons should only
inherit or acquire fiefs outside the duchies. He
also showed great prudence in his relations with
France and Germany ; and at last in 1542 a conven-
tion was signed at Nuremberg between his son and
successor, Anthony, and the Emperor Charles V, by
which the latter acknowledged the independence
150 TH*E TRUE STORY OF
of the duchy of Lorraine, the imperial suzerainty
being limited to the marquisates of Pont-a-Mousson
and Hattonchatel, the counties of Blamont and
Nomeny, and the so-called garde of Toul and avQuerie
of Remiremont.
At this period the whole tendency of Lorraine
policy was to shake off as far as possible all connexion
with Germany. After Duke Anthony's son Francis,
who reigned only a year, came in 1545 his grandson
Charles III, known to Lorrainers as the Great. As a
child he was taken to France, where Henri II married
him to his daughter Claude. Charles had several
relatives in France. His predecessor, Rene II, had
held numerous lordships there, and in pursuance of
his policy to have his younger sons provided for outside
Lorraine and Bar, he left the counties of Guise,
Aumale, Joinville, Mayenne, and Elboeuf to his fifth
son Claude of Lorraine, who was afterwards raised to
the rank of Duke of Guise, and became the progenitor of
that famous house. In 1552, at the time of Charles III
of Lorraine, Henri II of France contrived to secure
possession of the Three Bishoprics Metz, Toul, and
Verdun as I mentioned in an earlier chapter.* It
was the famous Marshal Anne de Montmorency who
obtained possession of the city of Metz, the Catholic
elements of its population, headed by the Bishop
himself, Mgr. de Lenoncourt, assisting in the enter-
prise. It may be added that Henri II had pre-
viously signed a treaty with Maurice of Saxony
authorizing him to establish himself in the towns
which " anciently belonged to the Empire, but which
were not of Germanic speech." Henri II made a
solemn entry into Metz in April 1552 ; but the Em-
peror Charles V was not unnaturally furious, and in
* See p. 47, ante.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 151
the following month of October he besieged the city
with a great army. As I related in my account
of Metz* he had to withdraw, after suffering great
losses, on the ensuing first of January. Henri II
contented himself with assuming the title of Protector
at Metz, Verdun, and Toul, but his third son and
successor, Henri III, entitled himself Sovereign Lord
of those towns. It must be admitted that whilst
France continued to exercise effective sway in the
Bishoprics her right to do so was not formally acknow-
ledged by the Germanic Empire until the Peace of
Westphalia in 1648, when it was agreed that Metz,
Toul, and Verdun should remain possessions of the
French Crown. The Duchy of Lorraine not having
then been united to France, the Bishoprics, although
separated from one another by intervening strips of
territory, were incorporated as a French province,
that of " Les Trois-Eveches."
In all probability if the Guises had not been so
powerful, and Henri III of France so extremely weak,
all Lorraine would have been joined to France in the
sixteenth century. Duke Charles sided with his
relatives the Guises and the famous Catholic League
against the effete Henri III. Adherents of the League
garrisoned Metz, Verdun, Mezieres, Toul, and other
towns. There was no war declared with the Em-
pire, but German Protestants allied themselves with
some of the Protestants of Lorraine, and the duchy
became the scene of hostilities. The great struggle of
that period was semi-religious and semi-political. On
the one hand the Leaguers wished to stamp out
the Protestant religion, on the other there was con-
tention for the crown of France. Duke Charles of
Lorraine wished to obtain that crown for his son
* See p. 48, ante.
152 THTE TRUE STORY OF
Henri, and if by virtue of descent the claims of the
House of Lorraine could be regarded as superior to
those of the House of Bourbon (represented by Henry
of Navarre), the senior representative of Lorraine was
assuredly more entitled to the reversion of Henri Ill's
crown than any junior representative, such as Henri
Duke de Guise. The latter, however, aspired to
become King of France, and in conjunction with his
immediate kinsmen he opposed Charles's pretensions.
Guise was assassinated at Blois in 1588 and Henri III
at Saint-Cloud in the following year. War still
continued, however, between France and Lorraine
until in 1595 Duke Charles signed a treaty of
peace with the Navarrese Henri IV at Folembray.
During the hostilities the Duke of Lorraine had
taken the towns of Stenay and Dun-sur-Meuse,
and their possession was confirmed to him at the
peace.
Charles's son, Henri II of Lorraine, at one time
the parental candidate for the throne of France, had
to content himself with marrying the new King of
France's sister, Catherine of Bourbon, with whom he
did not live on particularly good terms, for he was a
Catholic and she a very zealous Huguenot one who
boldly told her brother that she would not abjure her
faith for any kingdom in the world. In spite, how-
ever, of matrimonial bickerings, she bore her husband
two daughters, one of whom, named Nicole, was
married to a nephew of her husband named Charles.
By his will Henri II of Lorraine specified that Nicole
and her husband should reign over the duchy con-
jointly this arrangement being similar to that arrived
at in Great Britain, at a later period, in the case of
our William and Mary, the last named being Queen
Regnant and not merely Queen Consort. In the case
ALSACE-LORRAINE 153
of Lorraine, however, a kind of comedy was acted in
order to upset the will of Henri II. His nephew
Charles abdicated in favour of his own father, Francis
of Lorraine, who thereupon took possession of the
ducal throne. Francis occupied himself in paying off
some huge debts left by his predecessors, notably his
father Charles the Great, and then in his turn abdicated
in favour of his son. In this way Nicole was frus-
trated of her sovereign rights.
Trouble ensued with France over this matter,
particularly as Charles repudiated Nicole, and more-
over he aided and abetted the rebellion of Gaston of
Orleans against Louis XIII. He not only supplied
Gaston with an asylum, but gave him his sister Mar-
guerite in marriage. Later he openly allied himself
with the German and Spanish enemies of France. War
ensued, and Louis XIII besieged and took Nancy,
which offered very little resistance to his forces.
Louis, however, regarded his exploit as a glorious one,
and requested Jacques Callot, the famous artist, to
depict the surrender in an engraving. But Callot,
who was a native of Nancy, boldly replied : '" I would
rather cut off my thumb than do so." In 1632 Duke
Charles was at last constrained to sign a peace with
France, by which he covenanted to allow French
forces free passage across the duchy, and to renounce
all alliance with her enemies. But he did not keep his
word, and before long fresh trouble arose in such wise
that in 1634 he abdicated in favour of his brother,
Cardinal Nicholas Francis of Lorraine, whom France,
however, declined to recognize. As Nicholas, though a
Cardinal, was not a priest, he married Claude, the sister
of the discarded Nicole, in the hope of thereby forti-
fying his authority. But Richelieu instructed the
Duke de La Force, who commanded in Lorraine for
154 THE TRUE STORY OF
France, to arrest the newly married pair, and they
were shut up in the ducal palace at Nancy, whence,
however, they managed to escape under dramatic and
picturesque circumstances.
They joined Duke Charles, who had fled to Ger-
many, and Richelieu was left master of Lorraine. He
appointed French governors in the place of the officials
of Duke Charles, garrisoned the towns with French
soldiery, and instituted at Nancy a Sovereign Court of
Lorraine, which many of the native nobility willingly
entered, as Charles by his foreign alliances had made
himself extremely unpopular among them. His wife
Nicole, whom he had repudiated in 1637, sought a
refuge in Paris. He himself experienced many further
vicissitudes. Until 1642 he continued waging war as
best he could. In that year, however, he signed a
treaty acknowledging as Due-client the patronage of
France. Afterwards he disputed this arrangement
and again quitted Lorraine, whereupon France,
showing less reserve than previously, appointed an
intendant to administer the duchy. The capture of
the fortresses of La Mot he and Longwy finally made
the French supreme masters there. Charles, who
fell out with his allies the Spaniards, was arrested by
them and detained for five years at Antwerp. He w 7 as
not included in the Treaty of Westphalia, but by that
of the Pyrenees he was restored to a part of his States.
France retained the Clermontois in the Argonne,
Stenay, Dun, and Jametz, and also for a time the
Duchy of Bar, which was ultimately returned to
Charles by a convention signed at Vincennes. In
1663, however, Charles had to hand Marsal over to
Louis XIV. Moreover, when the latter declared war
on Holland, being by no means sure of the neutrality
of Lorraine, he again occupied the duchy, and his
ALSACE-LORRAINE 155
distrust was justified by the immediate departure of
Charles to join the enemies of France.
I have mentioned that this Duke of Lorraine had
repudiated his wife Nicole. He did so in order to
marry a beautiful young woman named Beatrix de
Cusance, widow of the Prince de Cantecroix, and he
took this course with the approval of a Jesuit Father
named Cheminot, who held that his marriage with
Nicole was null and void as he had been " constrained
to it " by the will of his uncle, the bride's father. But
in 1639 Pope Urban VIII annulled Charles's marriage
with the Princess de Cantecroix, and declared their
children a son and a daughter to be illegitimate.
Nevertheless, Beatrix clung to Charles, and shared his
adventurous life, invariably accompanying him to the
wars, and thereby becoming known as his femme de
campagne. Later, the Duke (Nicole having died)
married Beatrix by deputy, as she lay on her death-
bed. But he was already carrying on an intrigue
with the young Countess de Ludres, a canoness of the
Abbey of Poussay, who subsequently became, for a
short time, one of the mistresses of Louis XIV.
Charles promised to marry the Countess, but never
did so. Constrained in later years to live in Paris,
he there became infatuated with a certain Marianne
Pa jot, an apothecary's daughter, and with this girl he
actually went through a form of marriage. But the
union was dissolved by the Parliament of Paris in
consequence of the united protests of the Houses of
Bourbon and Lorraine. Ultimately, a mere child,
Louise Marguerite, daughter of the Count d'Apre-
mont-Nanteuil, was thrown in the amorous old Duke's
way, and in July 1665 (he then being sixty-two years
of age) he was married to this girl who was just
entering her teens. No children were born of the
156 TfrE TRUE STORY OF
union.* This particular Charles of Lorraine was a
singular compound of energy and weakness. He was
an extremely brave man, but possessed no stability
of character, and by his constant changes of policy he
contributed more than any other prince of his line to
destroy the independence of his States.
He was succeeded in 1675 by his nephew Charles V,
son of Cardinal Nicholas Francis and Claude. This
duke, a very handsome man, also had several love
affairs, notably with Marie Mancini, the Princess Mar-
guerite Louise of Orleans, and the Grande Made-
moiselle de Montpensier. The French still occupied
Lorraine, and as Charles V would not subscribe to the
Treaty of the Pyrenees or that of Nimeguen, or give
up his claims to Longwy or sanction military roads
through Lorraine for French purposes, he was never
much more than titular Duke. Brave like most of his
forerunners, and a very capable soldier praised in
that respect by the great Duke of Berwick he sided
with the Germanic Empire against France, and married
Eleanor, sister of the Emperor Leopold I. In 1690
he was followed by his son, also called Leopold, who
by the Treaty of Ryswick was placed, in consequence
of the military reverses of France, in possession of his
ancestral dominions. Nevertheless, he had to leave
Longwy and Sarrelouis to Louis XIV, and grant a
right of passage through his States to French troops.
Seventy years of warfare and frequent foreign occu-
pation had proved disastrous to Lorraine. Until the
beginning of the seventeenth century, in spite of the
frequency of hostilities, the duchy had been a progres-
sive State. At the period just mentioned it had 400,000
inhabitants. Even its mountainous and forest re-
* I have extracted some of the above particulars from a previous book
of mine, " The Favourites of Louis XIV." (Chat-to and Windus.)
ALSACE-LORRAINE 157
gions were becoming populated, and commerce and
industry were increasing. Great fairs were held in
one and another town, and attracted traders from
many parts of Europe. In the wake of the Reforma-
tion, which came chiefly from Alsace, a democratic
movement set in, but was thrown back by excesses,
such as attended the rising of the Rustauds.* On the
other hand, the advent of the Reformation led to the
reform of some of the religious orders, notably the
Benedictines and Premonstratensians. Further, in
1572 Charles the Great founded the first university
of Lorraine at Pont-a-Mousson. But the subsequent
age of incessant turmoil brought misery with it.
There were pestilences, famines, ever-increasing im-
posts, incessant marchings and counter-marchings of
plundering soldiery. Good government became im-
possible. It is acknowledged that the French officials
who were appointed by Louis XIII and Louis XIV
did what they could to alleviate the sufferings of the
inhabitants, but the task devolving on them was
really beyond their powers.
Though Duke Leopold had an Austrian mother he
took a French wife, Elizabeth Charlotte of Orleans,
and in endeavouring to replace the administration of
his States on an orderly basis he followed French
examples. They, perhaps, were scarcely the best
guides, for in spite of Colbert, Vauban, and others,
the age of Louis XIV was too often one of sheer
oppression. The laws introduced by Leopold were
mainly copied from the ordonnances of the French
monarch. Native traditions were disregarded, in
such wise that the assimilation of Lorraine to
France steadily increased. The financial systems be-
came almost identical. In spite, however, of various
* See pp. 33, 34, 81, ante.
158 THE TRUE STORY OF
errors, Leopold certainly improved the condition of
his people. He also patronized art and letters, and
built a great deal. About the time of his accession
Nancy had less than 8000 inhabitants. Eleven
years later it counted nearly 15,000, who in 1734 had
increased to nearly 20,000. At that time, it is re-
corded, an octroi service for the collection of municipal
dues on provisions and other commodities coming
into the town had been established, and the streets
were lighted with lanterns.
For a while Nancy had felt the evil effects of the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (October 22, 1685),
though in a less degree than Metz, which is said to have
lost two-thirds of its population at that time. There
were dragonnades and other persecutions in various
parts of Lorraine. The Jews, who were not disturbed,
profited by the emigration of the Protestants. They
had been expelled from the Three Bishoprics in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but during the
sixteenth a few were allowed to remain for a short
time at Metz. Their number was at last reduced to
four families, who obtained permission to continue
residing in the town on paying 200 crowns apiece to
the Bishop and an annual sum of 200 limes for the
benefit of the poor. They were to receive no foreign
Jews, to take no weapons (unless by express permission)
as security for loans, and to levy no higher weekly
interest than one denier (the twelfth part of a sou) for
every lime they lent. In less than forty years those
four families had become twenty-five. In 1614 there
were 58 families ; in 1624, 76 ; in 1657, 96 ; and in
1674, 119, comprising 665 males and females, all
descended from the original four families of 1556.
This increase continued afterwards. In 1681 there
were no fewer than 1422 Jews of both sexes at Metz.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 159
In 1689, 32 refugees from the Palatinate obtained
permission to settle in the town, where in 1739 there
were altogether 530 Jewish households, representing
2213 persons, all of whom resided in the same street,
virtually a Ghetto, where exorbitant rents were
paid as Jews might not possess house property. In
order to remain undisturbed they handed large sums,
virtually bribes, to members of the corporation and
the nobility. Besides being subjected to very heavy
taxation they were only allowed to deal in certain
specified commodities. Louis XV granted his mistress,
the Duchess de Chateauroux, a rente on the Jews of
Metz in order to increase her income. She was
parted, however, from the King not long afterward
and succumbed to poison administered by somebody
jealous of her influence. It was about this period
that the Jews were exempted from the obligation of
having to wear yellow hats to distinguish them from
all good, and likewise bad, Christians. In connexion
with the war of the Austrian Succession (1741-1748)
the Lorraine Jews rendered considerable services by
bringing horses for the French cavalry from Germany
and also by importing grain. They are said to have
sacrificed 30,000 limes in these matters, and it was
probably as a reward for their behaviour that the
stigma of the yellow hat was removed.
As an ecclesiastical see Metz remained under the
archi episcopal jurisdiction of Treves until in the early
period of the great Revolution it came under the
Archbishopric of Reims. When, how r ever, Napoleon
restored religion he placed the Bishop of Metz under
the Archbishop of Besancon, and this continued to
be the position until the annexation by Germany. In
ancient times the city figured somewhat prominently
in ecclesiastical history, eight Church Councils being
160 THE TRUE STORY OF
held there. At one of these it was enacted that no
priest should have more than one church or benefice,
a regulation which would have horrified many a fat
pluralist of later days. The same sixth-century
council also decreed that no woman whatsoever
should dwell in a priest's house, even though she were
his mother or his sister. As time elapsed the regula-
tions became less and less stringent in this respect.
Nevertheless, during Duke Leopold's reign (1690-
1729) we find bishops ordaining that no priest should
keep a housekeeper aged less than forty years. The
Bishop of Toul even decreed that the priests and
curates in his diocese should not visit girls' schools.
In 1715 a priest convicted of adultery with a notary's
wife was ordered to pay a fine equivalent to 100,
and, if worth more than that amount, to have all his
property confiscated. He, however, at least retained
his liberty whereas his paramour was sentenced to
imprisonment for life. Some years later another
priest, convicted of ignoble offences, suffered the
death penalty.
Immorality was usually punished severely. In
one case an unfaithful wife was hanged and her lover
broken on the wheel. The wife of a locksmith of
Nancy was likewise sentenced to death, but we read
that her husband, compassionating her fate, offered to
take her back, and thereby saved her life. In another
town a girl found in a barracks was sentenced to
perpetual banishment. On the other hand unfaithful
husbands escaped with fines of twenty limes or there-
abouts. Another typical case was that of a count who,
having a son by his wife's maid, was sentenced to
bring up the child at his own expense and in due time
to have him taught a trade. There were horrible
penalties for some offences. A drunken man entered
ALSACE-LORRAINE 161
a church and attempted to take the Communion. He
had not confessed, and, moreover, instead of praying
he began to swear. The sentence in his case was that
his tongue should be pierced with a red-hot iron, and
that he should afterwards be banished from the
duchy. The clerk of a court of justice escaped a
similar penalty for a curious reason. He was con-
victed of having used, whilst in his cups, blasphemous
language about the Pope, the priesthood, and the
Duke. He was pardoned, however, on it being urged
in his favour that whenever he tippled too freely he
invariably became quarrelsome and offensive, instead
of merry like other people.
After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes the
enactments against Protestants were particularly
severe, for although only the Three Bishoprics and
a few other districts really belonged to France, the
forces of Louis XIV were to be found all over the
duchy. In the case of Catholics who lapsed from
their religion into Protestantism there was but one
penalty death by hanging. From time to time
there were still some trials for sorcery, and unhappy
victims were burnt at the stake ; but these cases were
far less numerous than during the Thirty Years' War,
when Protestants as well as Catholics freely put so-
called witches to death.
I have mentioned that priests were forbidden to
enter girls' schools, and may add that in most localities
schoolmasters and mistresses were elected by the
burgesses or other parishioners. In the first instance,
however, all candidates were examined respecting
their orthodoxy and attainments by ecclesiastical
authorities, and only those regarded fit for the posts
to which they aspired were eligible for election. One
of the Bishops of Toul took a wise course by ordering
L
162 THE TRUE STORY OF
that whilst children should first say their prayers in
Latin, according to the usage of the Church, they
should afterwards repeat them in French in order that
they might know the nature of their prayer. This
appears to have been decreed in order to meet the
frequent objection of the Protestants, that the folk
who said their prayers in Latin had no notion what
they meant.
Some proof of the increasing prosperity of Lorraine
under Duke Leopold and his successors is supplied
by the following figures. In 1700, ten years after
Leopold's accession, the taxes brought 680,000 limes
to the ducal exchequer, but in 1729, the last year of his
reign, they yielded 1,915,620 limes. In 1737, soon
after the accession of Stanislas Leczinski, it was found
that there were 125,768 households liable to payment
of taxes ; and M. Ravold, one of the historians of
Lorraine, estimates that allowing for the large number
of people who were exempt from taxation, and also for
the indigent class, the above figures would imply that
the population of the duchy was then approximately
760,000. There is plenty of evidence respecting the
steady growth of industry and trade. In textiles,
linen and cotton goods and lace were to the fore.
The mines were worked more thoroughly than pre-
viously. Tin alone gave employment to 2000 hands.
There were numerous smelting- works, foundries, and
forges. The glass-works, notably at Baccarat, had
become extremely important. The paper-mills em-
ployed some 500 hands, and produced about 80,000
reams annually.
It has been mentioned that French troops occupied
various parts of Lorraine in Duke Leopold's time. In
1702 Louis XIV, fearing invasion, garrisoned Nancy,
where his forces remained until almost the end of his
ALSACE-LORRAINE 163
reign. Leopold lodged a mild kind of protest and
then settled at Luneville, which remained the usual
residence of the ducal court until Lorraine was united
to France. In 1707 Leopold's conciliatory policy
induced Louis to hand over the town of Commercy,
which he had been arbitrarily detaining. Further,
under the regency of the Duke of Orleans, the French
restored the prevote of Longwy, that is, apart from the
actual town and fortress (the latter Vauban's work),
which Louis XIV had styled the "Iron Gate of
France." As some compensation for the retention of
the stronghold, Rambervillers and its dependencies
were restored to the Duke of Lorraine. His sover-
eignty was also recognized over Saint-Hippolyte,
Nomeny, Saint-Avoid, and the Abbey of Rieval. In
1728, near the close of his reign, a treaty was signed
with France by which Lorraine was declared to be
neutral territory. In a secret clause, however, Leo-
pold covenanted to allow French troops the right of
passage through the duchy " in case of absolute
necessity, as happens in nearly all wars." One cannot
read those last words without thinking of what hap-
pened to Belgium in 1914.
There is no doubt that Leopold's rule was an auto-
cratic one, based on the system which sprang up in
France under Louis XIV. The old constitutional
methods observed by earlier Dukes were ignored, and
when some of the Lorraine nobles protested against
the change they were silenced in the most peremptory
fashion.* It was Leopold who gave an asylum in
Lorraine to the Young Pretender, greatly to the
* Many of them disliked Leopold because, apart from levying fees on
new creations, he ordered that all families ennobled by the Bishops of Metz,
Verdun, and Toul, and by the Lords of Commercy since 1616, should pay
6000 limes apiece, with additional sealing duties, for confirmation of their
rank.
164 THE TRUE STORY OF
disgust of our Hanoverian sovereign. Some time
afterwards the Duke had occasion to send the Marquis
de Lambertye as envoy to England, but George II
refused to receive him, and the only result, a not
unimportant one, of the Marquis's journey was that
he brought back with him a quantity of English
seed potatoes which were of a much superior quality
to those introduced by the Swedes about 1665 during
the Thirty Years' War. Hitherto, moreover, the
cultivation of potatoes had been restricted, as the
tubers were said to exhaust the soil, but from Leo-
pold's time it spread greatly, and became so re-
munerative that under the French regime a special
tax was levied on potato crops.
Leopold's wife, Elizabeth Charlotte of Orleans,
whom he married in 1699, presented him with four
children, two sons and two daughters. One of the
girls married Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, King of
Sardinia, and the other became Abbess of Remiremont.
The younger son, Charles of Lorraine, entered the
Austrian service, was appointed Governor of the
Netherlands, and married one of the Hapsburg arch-
duchesses. The elder son, Francis Stephen, succeeded
his father as Duke of Lorraine and Bar. Now the
policy of Duke Leopold had been to conciliate both the
kingdom of France and its almost constant enemy,
the Germanic Empire. Placed between those power-
ful rivals, Leopold had generally striven to avoid
entanglements and to preserve the independence of
Lorraine. Thus, whilst improving his relations with
France, he willingly allowed his eldest son, when
fourteen years of age, to proceed to Vienna and com-
plete his education there. There was nothing par-
ticularly out of the way in this, as the Duke's mother
had been the Austrian Archduchess Eleanor, sister
ALSACE-LORRAINE 165
of the Emperor Leopold I. At the time when Francis
Stephen went to Vienna, that is, in or about 1715, the
imperial throne was occupied by his uncle Charles VI.
The young fellow grew up at the latter's Court,
accustoming himself to its vain, semi- Spanish cere-
monial, and the haughty, supercilious manners of the
Princes of the Imperial Blood. When his father died
in 1729 he was twenty-one years old, and the Emperor,
who had created him Palatine of Hungary, already
intended to give him his daughter, Maria Theresa, in
marriage.
On hearing, however, of his father's death, Francis
Stephen returned to Lorraine, where his mother had
already proclaimed him as Francis III, and assumed,
as Regent, the duties of Government. She had also
begun to levy the usual dons dejoyeux avdnement the
44 joyful accession gifts " in both Lorraine and Bar,
the contribution of the former duchy being fixed at
380,610 livres, and of the latter at 174,710 limes.
This was one of the few occasions when in those times
nobles and ecclesiastics had to draw on the money in
their coffers, as though they were merely common
taxable folk. Francis remained in Lorraine until
April 1731, when after confirming his mother in the
regency he again departed to Vienna, never again to
set eyes on his ancestral possessions. His subjects
had welcomed him because he was their Duke, and
they had always been attached to the ducal house.
Never, indeed, were there more loyal folk than the
Lorrainers generally. However bad any particular
Duke might be, the bulk of his subjects rallied round
him, or sympathized with him, or found excuses for
his errors of policy, or his extravagance or his breaches
of the ordinary laws. On their side the Dukes,
besides invariably being brave men, had also been
166 THE TRUE STORY OF
affable ones who could unbend and consort with their
subjects from time to time. But this Francis III
was very different. He had become essentially a
German, and particularly a Hapsburg.
Both of his grandmothers, by the way, were
Germans, one, as w r e have seen, being a Hapsburg
Archduchess, and the other that famous Charlotte
Elizabeth of Bavaria, commonly called the Princess
Palatine, whose correspondence is so valuable for the
history of her times. Married to Philip I, Duke of
Orleans, brother of Louis XIV, she became by him
mother of the Regent of France as well as of Elizabeth
Charlotte, the consort of Leopold of Lorraine.
As will presently be shown, Elizabeth Charlotte was
intensely French in her sentiments, and it is possible
that if her son Francis III had not been removed to
Vienna at the very time when a youth's character is
beginning to develop, she might, perhaps, have made
him less of a German, less of a Hapsburg than he
became in the confined atmosphere of the Viennese
Hofburg, which seized hold of him and stifled any
generous sentiments originally existing in his nature.
From his grandmother, the Archduchess Eleanor, he
had inherited by reason of that curious prepotency
of the Hapsburgs, female as well as male, in sexual
relations some of the distinguishing physical features
and mental characteristics of the imperial breed.
These had been developed by his life at Vienna. The
contemptuous haughtiness which this young man
barely in the twenties displayed towards his subjects
of Lorraine, checked the affection which they would
otherwise have showered on him ; and thus when he
left the duchy though nobody imagined that he
would never again return there were few if any who
regretted his departure.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 167
His mother the Regent was much liked, and the
hearty loyalty which he rejected was transferred to
her. She freely refers to him in her correspondence
as her " German son," and complains of the shameful
manner in which he bled Lorraine, extracting from
the duchy every lime he could, and spending it
at Vienna. In a word, he merely regarded Lorraine
as a milch-cow. The Duchess-Regent tells us that
his annual revenues amounted to 5,960,000 limes >
made up as follows : From the farmers-general,
2,600,000 ; from the subsidy, otherwise the tattle
(that is, income and land tax), 2,000,000 ; from the
ducal domains and the forests, 910,000 ; and from
casual sources, minting, and other rights, 450,000
limes. Of this amount he expended in Lorraine only
about 1,200,000 limes on salaries, the upkeep of the
ducal stables and hunt, and allowances to his
mother, his sisters, and his younger brother Charles.
Moreover, he only paid interest on the debts left
by his father (between eight and nine million
limes\ without reducing the principal by a single
copper.
Now in 1738 Augustus II or the Strong, Elector
of Saxony and King of Poland, died, and his son
Augustus III, the only legitimate one among some
three hundred, expected to be elected in his turn to the
Polish throne. But he w r as opposed by a Nationalist
party which, assembling at Warsaw in September that
same year, chose a compatriot, Stanislas Leczinski,*
for the regal dignity. His daughter Marie having
become the wife of Louis XV of France, that sovereign
supported his claims. On the other hand the Emperor
Charles VI upheld those of Augustus of Saxony, who
* There are various spellings of this name. I have preferred to use the
least complicated.
168 THE TRUE STORY OF
had married one of his daughters, the elder sister of
Maria Theresa. The Emperor was the more influenced
in this matter as, having no male heir, he desired to
leave all his possessions to Maria Theresa, in whose
favour was issued the famous deed known as the
Pragmatic Sanction. This set aside the legitimate
rights of the daughters of the Emperor's deceased
brother, Joseph I, and also those of Maria Theresa's
elder sister, whose husband, Augustus of Saxony,
expecting the crown of Poland, assented to this course.
In return the Emperor undertook to place Augustus
on the Polish throne, and the Russian Empress, Anna
Ivanovna, niece of Peter the Great, was a party to
this determination, the more particularly as Stanislas
Leczinski had been a companion in arms and in
captivity of Russia's enemy, Charles XII of Sweden.
Charles VI and Anna therefore intervened by force of
arms, and Leczinski was driven from Poland. France
having declared war gained some victories over the
Austrians, but was ultimately obliged to recognize
Augustus as Polish sovereign.
One must now pass to another matter. At this
same period the Grand Duke of Tuscany was John
Gaston de' Medici, son of Cosmo III by Marguerite
Louise, daughter of Gaston, Duke of Orleans, brother
of Louis XIII. John Gaston had married a Bavarian
princess by whom he had no children, and his nearest
relation was the Duke of Parma, who was also childless.
In 1725 therefore ten years before the war for the
Polish Succession France, the Empire, and Spain
entered into a treaty by which it was agreed that the
two duchies of Tuscany and Parma (with which was
included Piacenza) should pass on the death of their
respective sovereigns to the Infant Don Carlos, later
King of Naples. At the conclusion of the Polish war,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 169
however, this arrangement was cancelled inasmuch
as it concerned Tuscany, it being decided by pre-
liminaries signed at Vienna on Octover 3, 1735, that
the Grand Duchy should go to Maria Theresa's des-
tined husband, Francis III of Lorraine and Bar, he
on his side relinquishing those States in favour of
Stanislas Leczinski to compensate the last named for
the loss of the Polish crown. It was further stipulated
that, on the death of Stanislas, Lorraine and Bar
should be united to France. Other arrangements
were that the lordship of Falkenstein belonging to
Francis III should go to Austria, that the nobles
of Lorraine should retain the right to sit in the
Imperial Diet, and that, as Francis would not
come into possession of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
until the death of John Gaston, France should
pay him in the interval, as a kind of pension, a
sum of 4,500,000 livres, and also discharge the
debts left by his father to the amount of 8,711,726
livres.
These various covenants supply a remarkable
illustration of the manner in which high and mighty
princes then disposed not only of territories but also
of their inhabitants, whose wishes were deemed too
contemptible to be consulted. We see a Lorrainer,
descended from the old house of France, set on the
Italian throne of Tuscany, a Spaniard placed in pos-
session of the Two Sicilies and Parma, a German
Elector of Saxony made King of Poland, and a Pole
made Duke of Lorraine and Bar. Napoleon did some
extraordinary things as a Kingmaker, but he was more
consistent in his methods, uniformly conferring the
regal dignity, as in the case of Spain, Holland, Naples,
and Westphalia, on his own kinsfolk, or, as in the case
of Saxony, Bavaria, and Wurttemberg, allowing native
170 THE TRUE STORY OF
princes of inferior status to assume the kingly
title.*
Bleeding his subjects of Lorraine and pocketing
remittances from Louis XV, Duke Francis III indulged
himself at Vienna in gratifying his expensive tastes.
He was a tailor's man with a passion for fine clothes,
and history has preserved a record of a coat that
cost him 300,000 florins, or approximately 25,000,
precious stones being sprinkled plentifully about the
embroidery. Tucked out in this fashion Francis
paid his court to the Archduchess Maria Theresa,
whom he married on February 12, 1736, he then being
twenty-eight and she nineteen years of age. Among
the children afterwards born to them were the
Emperors Joseph II and Leopold II, and Marie
Antoinette, who died upon the scaffold.
John Gaston de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany,
an affable and cultured prince with a hatred of bigotry
and an inclination towards philosophic doubt, passed
away at Florence on July 9, 1737. Ten days later
the Tuscan Senate took the oath to Francis of Lorraine.
Owing to his grasping nature a dispute arose respect-
ing John Gaston's personal property and effects, to
which Don Carlos of Naples and the deceased's sister,
the Electress Palatine,f had better claims. Francis,
however, set hands on everything he could. There
was only one fly in his ointment. On being placed in
possession of Tuscany his French pension ceased, and
as yet, instead of 4,500,000 livres, he had only received
* There were no kings except the titular King of the Romans in the old
Holy Roman Germanic Empire. The highest dignities were those of elector
and duke. Prussia did not form part of the Empire, where its king was only
Elector of Brandenburg. The old emperors would not allow any ruler of
lands subject to the imperial suzerainty to assume the title of king.
f The reigning branch of the famous house of the Medici became extinct
at her death, which occurred on February 18, 1743.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 171
1,300,193 and 14 sous (sic). Nothing more was paid
to him personally by the French government, though
certain agreed allowances to members or connexions
of the old house of Lorraine were continued until the
Revolutionary period (1793).
Although a few Lorraine nobles followed the for-
tunes of their former Duke and betook themselves to
Vienna, while others joined his younger brother
Charles at Brussels, the people generally were grief-
stricken at finding themselves sold like a herd of
cattle by the degenerate descendant of their native
dynasty. The town and county of Commercy were
by agreement assigned to the Duchess-Regent, Eliza-
beth Charlotte, and when she and her retainers
quitted Lurieville, the seat of the ducal court, people
lined the roads, knelt before her, and wept, whilst
begging that she would not forsake them. Her opinion
of her son's conduct is shown by a letter which she
wrote at this period. She bluntly denounced him in
it as a degenerate, and after refusing to join her
younger son, the Governor of the Austrian Nether-
lands, she added : " I greatly love Lorraine and the
Lorrainers. They do not dislike me, and so I will
remain with them until the end of my days. As for
the Emperor (Charles VI) I would rather die at this
moment than come under his domination. I will
live my own life, and stay here unless I go to Paris
should the King (Louis XV) so will it. He is the head
of my house, and I will always obey him and no other
power ; and if he allows me to stay here, it is here I
hope that I shall end my days (Luneville, June
1736)."*
* She succumbed to an attack of apoplexy at Commercy on December 23,
1744, and was much regretted by the Lorrainers.
VI
THE STORY OF LORRAINE
(FROM THE TIME of STANISLAS TO 1870)
Stanislas Leczinski : His Disposition and Personal Popularity : The
Intendant La Galaiziere : Bad Seasons in Lorraine : Excessive Taxa-
tion : War of the Austrian Succession : Louis XV at Metz : More
Taxation and Increasing Unpopularity of La Galaiziere : The
Amours of Stanislas : His French Friends : His Tragic Death :
Lorraine under the Old French Regime : Industrial Prosperity :
Church Abuses : Crimes and Punishments : The Revolution : The
Switzers at Nancy : Patriotism of Lorraine : Lorraine under Napo-
leon : The last Bourbon Rule : The People of the Sarre and Prussia :
Napoleon III and the Coup ffEtat : Last Years of the Second
Empire.
THE Duchy of Bar was formally transferred to Stanislas
Leczinski on February 8, 1737, and that of Lorraine
on March 21 in the same year. One of his com-
patriots, a certain Baron Mechec, took possession of
the States in his name. Born at Lemberg, the capital
of Galicia, Stanislas was at this time sixty years of
age. His early career had been most adventurous.
Apart from his attempt to secure the kingdom of
Poland, in which he was supported by his more
patriotic countrymen, he had distinguished himself
in one of the great sieges of Dantzig, and as a close
friend of both the famous Charles XII of Sweden
and Mazeppa, the renowned Hetman of the Cossacks,
he had fought at that Battle of Pultava on losing
which Charles had sought a refuge in Turkey, whither
Stanislas accompanied him. But those wild days
were past, and in time the Polish prince had become
172
ALSACE-LORRAINE 173
corpulent and somewhat indolent also, as happens
with a good many men who expend their vitality too
freely in their early days. His one great desire was
to be regarded as a king, and when the transfer of
Lorraine was arranged he bethought himself of
Merovingian times and wished his new State to be
called the Kingdom of Austrasia. But France, having
the reversion of the duchy, would not listen to his
suggestion. On the other hand, although Poland
was for ever lost to him he had certainly been elected
to its throne, and on that account was always known
as King Stanislas, even among the Lorrainers, who
possibly thought this a good way to distinguish him
from their native dukes.
Simple in his habits, personally frugal, Stanislas
was affable and good-natured within the limits which
his peculiar circumstances allowed. In one respect
his character was contradictory. Whilst he remained
throughout his life a practising Catholic, friendly
also towards the Jesuits, he dabbled in the philo-
sophical ideas of the eighteenth century, and attracted
some of the foremost French philosophers to his
little court. In another respect also he was quite
a man of his times, having a strong inclination
towards galanterie. That may well account for
the bitter tongue ascribed to his wife, Catherine
Opalinska, who often had good cause for jealousy.
Withal, Stanislas became as popular among the
Lorrainers, notably those of Luneville and Nancy,
as was possible for a foreign prince thrust upon a
people who had never expressed any desire to be
ruled by him.
Stanislas's popularity was, however, strictly per-
sonal. It in no wise extended to the government
which was imposed upon him by France. In every
174 THE TRUE STORY OF
direction, throughout the whole eighteenth century
until the Revolution burst forth, the old French
regime did its utmost to destroy itself. It listened
to no remonstrances, it gave no heed to any warnings.
Slowly at first, but at a gradually quickening pace, it
steadily pursued the path leading to the precipice,
as if suicide were its set purpose, its fixed idea. It
had two mottoes, one emanating from the King,
Louis XV, who, when warned of the rottenness of
the whole fabric, remarked : "It will last as long as
I shall " ; and the other attributed to his mistress,
La Du Barry : " After us the deluge ! " The deluge,
one of blood, came, however, whilst she was yet
living, and it overtook her.
Now, before the time of Stanislas, Lorraine had
more than once had experience of French methods of
administration. They were revived under the Polish
Duke, who was put in leading-strings. Under the
pretext of relieving him of several of the cares of
government it was arranged that France should take
charge of financial matters, military affairs, the
appointment of officials, the control of the great
forests and other branches of the administrative
system. In return Stanislas was to be allowed
1,500,000, afterwards increased to 2,000,000, limes
per annum, equivalent, it is estimated, at the present
time to about 240,000. The result was as follows :
The French and Lorrainer military forces w r ere placed
under the command of the Duke de Fleury, who
received the title of Governor of the Duchies, whilst
all civil affairs were committed to the charge of a
certain Antoine Martin Chaumont de La Galaiziere,
hitherto Intendant at Soissons, and brother-in-law of
Jean Orry, previously Comptroller-General of Finances
in France. In Lorraine and Bar, La Galaiziere took
ALSACE-LORRAINE 175
the titles of Chancellor, Keeper of the Seals, and
Intendant.
He appears to have been a clever man and an
honest one, but he soon became extremely unpopular
by reason of his incessant exactions. As Intendant
he covered the duchies with officials, so-called delegates
and sub-delegates, who spent their time, morning,
noon, and night, in wringing money out of townsfolk
and villagers. Men shrank at last from accepting
the once honourable office of syndic, or mayor, of
a commune. Those who occupied this position were
made responsible for the commune's taxes, and Mon-
seigneur Flntendant and Monsieur le Delegue or
Sous-Delegue were never disposed to accept any
excuses. The taxes had to be paid in full and punctu-
ally on a certain date, or woe to the unfortunate
syndic who was not ready with the money. To
avoid unpleasant consequences, syndics possessed of
means sometimes paid the amount demanded out
of their own pockets, and had to wait perhaps a
couple of years before recovering from their
parishioners the money which they thus advanced.
This kind of thing often happened in rural districts.
Severe frosts, great storms, floods, spells of excessively
hot weather were frequent in Lorraine during the
eighteenth century. One year there were earth-
quakes ; at another time came a plague of locusts.
Stanislas reigned from February 1737 to February
1766, and I find that in fourteen of those nine and
twenty years there was one or another calamity
which led either to a scanty harvest or to some other
cause of widespread distress. The year 1754 was
known particularly as the " year of misery." Never-
theless, come flood, come storm, withering heat,
earthquake, or plague of insects, Monseigneur PInten-
176 TIJE TRUE STORY OF
dant expected all taxes to be paid as if nothing
whatever had happened.*
Arthur Young records in his famous survey of
France (1787-1789) that the plains of Lorraine were
among the worst cultivated in the whole country.
He would have understood the cause better had he
known that since the union of the duchy with France,
after the death of Stanislas that is, a period of
little more than twenty years there had again been
no fewer than nine bad years, some indeed when all
the crops had suffered. Like 1754, 1771 was a year
of the greatest distress ; and about the time when
Young was writing his work, the winter (1788-
1789) in Lorraine proved so extremely severe that
many walnut-trees as well as vines perished. Apart
from those visitations of nature, the peasantry,
bowed down by many burdens, were destitute
of the pecuniary resources required for really good
husbandry.
The two terrible winters of 1739 and 1740 led to
very great scarcity in the following year, and riots
broke out at Luneville, Vezelise, Dieuze, Enville, and
other places. Some severe sentences ensued, but
Stanislas, who had retained the prerogative of
clemency, granted a number of pardons. Matters
had scarcely improved when the War of the Austrian
Succession broke out. France joined Prussia in
supporting the cause of the Elector of Bavaria
(proclaimed as Emperor Charles VII) against that
of Maria Theresa. The Lorraine militia was con-
sidered barely sufficient to defend the duchy, and
accordingly six battalions, each of 600 men, were
* The French farmers-general now had a finger in the pie and paid
3,300,000 livres per annum for their privilege. The tax called the subvention
or taitte was fixed in 1738 at 1,800,000 livres, a considerable increase on
previous years.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 177
immediately raised and taken into the French service,
into which the Lorraine Guards had been already
drafted. A little later three bodies of cavalry were
recruited.* A sum of twenty-one limes per man was
levied on each commune supplying recruits, in order
that the latter might be provided with suitable cloth-
ing, and, in addition, Marshal Belle-Isle requisitioned
250,000 allowances of hay, straw, and wood.
Maria Theresa's partisan leader, Menzel of the
Pandours, invaded the Sarre region and was joined by
some of the people there. Next, Prince Charles of
Lorraine crossed the Rhine in command of regular
Austrian forces. The greatest scarcity then prevailed
throughout the duchy, corn being almost unprocurable.
Semi-starvation set in, and matters had scarcely
improved when the defeat of the French by the
troops commanded by George II of Great Britain at
Dettingen (July 27, 1743) caused general dismay.
Somewhat later Prince Charles captured Wissem-
bourg and was joined by various malcontent nobles.
Stanislas thereupon took shelter in Metz, at the same
time sending his wife to Versailles with all her jewel-
lery. Bitche, Fenestrange, Bouquenom, Sarregue-
mines, and Sarrelouis had been garrisoned and pro-
visioned in order to resist the invaders. There was
a moment of serious alarm, particularly as Maria
Theresa issued a manifesto calling upon the duchy to
rise against Stanislas, and declaring that her husband
(the man who had sold Lorraine) would speedily repair
thither to place himself at the head of all who would
join him. Nobody rose, however, and La Galaiziere
faced the situation in a very determined way.
* The infantry battalions were known as Nancy, Bar, Sarreguemines,
Etain, Epinal, and Neufchateau. The cavalry were called Polignac, Marain-
ville, and Lacroix, after their comm .nders.
M
178 THE TRUE STORY OF
Some French successes at last brought about a
change, whereupon Louis XV, yielding to the exhorta-
tions of the Duchess de Chateauroux, arrived at
Metz to place himself at the head of his forces. Then
for a brief space all became festivity in the old
Lorraine city, which had not seen a king of France
since the time of Henri IPs great triumphal entry
nearly two hundred years previously, though it had
been the original capital of the early warlike, hard-
riding Dukes, who did not transfer their government
to Nancy until the middle of the twelfth century.
To Metz with the King had come Madame de Chateau-
roux, much to the scandal of all " right-thinking "
folk ; nevertheless people from other parts of Lor-
raine poured into the city to see the King and join
in the fetes which followed his arrival. But Louis
suddenly fell very ill, prayers were offered up for
his recovery, the clergy exhorted him to dismiss the
" scarlet woman " whom he had brought with him,
and after she had narrowly escaped being murdered
by the populace he weakly assented, whereupon, of
course, Heaven promptly cured him, and joy was
displayed on every side. " I did not know I was so
much loved," he is said to have remarked ; and those
words probably inspired the appellation of "the Well-
beloved" bestowed on him at this time, and often
repeated in later years in a sense quite foreign to
that which had been originally intended.
Hostilities lasted until the Treaty of Aix-la-
Chapelle in 1748, when, although owing to floods and
storms there was still great scarcity in Lorraine, its
people breathed again. But in 1756, after much more
distress, the Seven Years' War began, bringing with it
yet fresh anxiety and suffering. Never had La Galai-
ziere, who was still at the head of affairs, shown him-
ALSACE-LORRAINE 179
self more exacting. Two super-taxes (" twentieths ")
had already been imposed, when in 1760 the Inten-
dant decided to levy a third one, which would have
meant a total increase of 60 per cent, above the
rate paid before the war. Lorraine and Bar had in
this way already supplied 3,790,971 limes ; husband-
men (laboureurs) paying 80 livres, and common
labourers (manceuvriers) 20 livres apiece. In the
state to which the country was reduced the idea of
yet heavier taxation aroused general protests. When
La Galaiziere summoned the Sovereign Court to
attend at Luneville to register the edict, the nobles
who answered the call protested that the farmers
were being ruined, and could no longer pay any
rents either in money or in kind. The dispute became
so violent that the French authorities at Versailles
were alarmed, and a compromise was effected, La
Galaiziere, much to his chagrin, having to obey the
orders he received. Briefly, the edict was registered,
but the third "twentieth" was not levied.
In lieu thereof La Galaiziere imposed on the clergy
a " gift to the Crown," whereby he secured some
200,000 livres. Other sums were levied in a similar
way on certain towns. At this period the cost of the
administration had become excessive, for since the
accession of Stanislas, La Galaiziere had added no
fewer than 1300 officials to those previously existing,
in such wise that on its bureaucracy alone the little
State expended more than five million livres a year.
One improvement was effected by the Intendant.
During the terrible " year of misery," 1754 though
not before free trade in grain was established between
Bar, Lorraine, and France. This measure enabled
the distressed duchies to secure some supplies which
were desperately needed.
180 THE TRUE STORY OF
La Galaiziere's unpopularity did not arise solely
from the excessive taxation. He showed no regard
for some of the feelings of the inhabitants. They had
been much attached to their former dynasty and
cherished many stirring historical memories. But
the Intendant decided that all such nonsense must
be stamped out. He forbade at Nancy the famous
time-honoured procession in commemoration of Duke
Rene's victory over Charles the Rash of Burgundy.
He caused busts and portraits of the old Dukes to
be removed often destroyed. He demolished several
historic castles, abbeys, and churches. He prevailed
on Stanislas to abolish the Marshals of Lorraine and
the office of Grand Seneschal. It mattered not to
him that the former dynasty had sprung from the
House of France. He foolishly endeavoured to oblite-
rate all traces of it. It was for this reason that he
willingly aided Stanislas in his well-meant enterprise
to improve and embellish Nancy. The city was
virtually transformed, and much of the architectural
work done there was in its way quite excellent. But
what most pleased La Galaiziere was the demolition
of the older buildings, the original ducal palace and
gate especially. Stanislas founded or enlarged several
hospitals, endowed the Order of Saint John of Jerusa-
lem in his duchies, encouraged education, establishing
burses at the University of Pont-a-Mousson, building
a College of Medicine and setting up a Society of
Sciences and Belles-Lettres at Nancy the last named
afterwards taking the name of Academic Stanislas.
In his time also Saint-Die, largely destroyed by fire,
was rebuilt, and Plombidres, famous for its waters,
was much improved. It is commonly held that
Stanislas paid for all the work, all the foundations
here mentioned ; but this appears to be incorrect.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 181
During his reign of nine and twenty years he certainly
laid out in this manner some 8,500,000 livres, but the
Lorrainers themselves had to defray the greater part
of the expenditure which was incurred. It has been
remarked that although Nancy took rank as one of
the finest cities in France, it was also one of the very
poorest, so heavily was it taxed to pay for its improve-
ments. Some of its new embellishments it by no
means appreciated. When in 1755 a statue of Louis
the Well-beloved was inaugurated on the Place
Royale, the inhabitants hooted the effigy of the
licentious monarch.
Stanislas was almost as amorously inclined as his
son-in-law, and kept several mistresses, the most
notorious of them being the Marchioness de Boufflers,
nee de Beauvau, on whom, according to some accounts,
he spent 2,000,000 livres, though others state that
he allowed her barely sufficient money to pay for
her skirts. Several Polish women of title are also
said to have been his favourites at various periods,
among them being the Duchess Ossolinska and the
Countess Jablonowska, the last of whom became one
of the mistresses of the Young Pretender. On the
whole, there were only a few Poles of both sexes at
the little Court of Luneville. Members of the French
and the Lorrainer nobility predominated. Stanislas
appears to have been on good terms with the ancient
houses of Haraucourt, Lenoncourt, Ligneville, and
du Chatelet the four " Grands Chevaux de Lor-
raine," or leaders of the duchy's ancient chivalry.
Other members of the noblesse who attached them-
selves to Stanislas were the Nettancourts, the Haus-
sonvilles, the Lambertyes, the Tornielles, and the
Serinchamps. The Countess de Choiseul and the
Countess de Raigecourt were ladies of the palace
182 THE TRUE STORY OF
under the Marchioness de Boufflers. To Luneville
also came the beautiful, witty, and accomplished
Marquise du Chatelet, accompanied by her lover
Voltaire, who wrote his famous story " Zadig " to
entertain the Court of Stanislas. It first appeared
in print at Luneville. Voltaire was not the only
great writer attracted to Lorraine. Thither also
came Montesquieu. There were others of lesser note,
including Palissot de Montenoy, then quite a young
man, and not as yet high pontiff of the so-called
" theophilanthropical " sect. Other familiars of the
circle which Stanislas gathered around him were the
Viscount de Rohan and the Count de Tressan.
I mentioned previously that whilst dabbling in
philosophy he favoured the Jesuits, whose dispersion
in 1762 by order of the Parliament of Paris greatly
affected him. He also protected the Jews, who soon
after his death were persecuted by the French authori-
ties.* His wife, Catherine Opalinska, died suddenly
in 1747, when sixty-six years old. They had been
married more than half a century. At this time
Stanislas himself was eighty. Nevertheless, four years
later, there was an attempt to marry him to Christina
of Saxony, sister of the Dauphiness who became the
mother of Louis XVI. Christina was fifty-five years
younger than Stanislas, and the French Court would
not hear of the match not, however, on account of
disparity in age, but from a fear lest the princess
should present the old Lothario with offspring,
thereby causing complications at his death.
He became very feeble in his last days. Many of
* By an edict of April 1766 only twelve Jewish families were allowed at
Nancy, four at Malzeville, and two at Luneville. Moreover, they were only
tolerated in those towns on the condition they should have no children !
Most of the Lorrainer Jews had to reside at Sarreguemines, Boulay, Dieuze,
and adjacent places,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 183
iis old cronies predeceased him, and at times he
invited some of the bourgeois of Luneville to visit
him and join in a game of trie-trac, his favourite
pastime. His death was a tragical affair. He had
returned to Luneville from a trip to Nancy, where
according to one account he had received " Lady
Mary Churchill, daughter of Robert Walpole, and
her husband," * and at about six o'clock on the
following morning, February 4, 1766, he was sitting
by the fireside in his bedroom, wearing a fur-lined
dressing-gown which his daughter, the Queen of
France, had sent him to keep out the cold. One
account says that he had been smoking his pipe, and
that on wishing to place it on the mantelpiece his
dressing-gown caught fire. Another version is that
he wished to see the time by a watch or a clock on
the mantelpiece, and that owing to the feebleness of
his eyesight he drew too close to the fire. At all
events his dressing-gown was speedily alight, and he
fell on the floor shrieking.
A maid-servant heard him, and called one of
the Bodyguard, who rushed to the bedroom. A gust
of air which followed the sudden opening of the door
fanned the flames, but they were extinguished by
wrapping Stanislas in blankets after he had been
deposited on his bed. All the injuries appear to
have been on the left side, and the flesh of the left
hand is said to have been quite burnt away. Every-
thing was done to save the old man, and, in fact,
after a few days' treatment the sores seemed to be
healing, and he spoke of his accident almost lightly,
saying : " My daughter warned me against catching
cold, she should have warned me against getting too
hot." But his time was nearly spent. He had con-
* I have failed to identify the lady in question.
184 TIJE TRUE STORY OF
fessed to Cardinal de Choiseul, Primate of Lorraine,
and received the Sacrament, when on February 21
he sank gradually into a comatose state and three
days later expired.
By the care of his daughter, the consort of Louis
XV, Stanislas was honoured with stately obsequies,
his remains being deposited beside those of his wife
in the sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Help, originally
erected by Duke Rene to commemorate the defeat
of Charles the Rash at Nancy, but rebuilt by the
Polish prince. Even whilst the latter was being
buried, his arms were struck off all public buildings
by the eager officials of Louis XV.* Six hundred and
eighty-eight years had elapsed since Gerard of Alsace,
according to tradition, had become hereditary Duke
of Lorraine. Now, by virtue of the diplomatic con-
ventions, the duchy ceased to be independent, and
the eaglets of its armorial bearings had to give place
to the fleurs-de-lis of France.
For a moment the Lorrainers derived some comfort
from the fact that, immediately after the death of
Stanislas, the obnoxious Chancellor and Intendant,
La Galaizi&re, resigned his office, and, repairing to
Versailles, was there appointed a member of the
Conseil du Roi. He was succeeded in Lorraine, how-
ever, by his son, who pursued much the same policy.
In regard to taxation f and other abuses, matters
did not improve under Thiroux de Crosne and La
* His wardrobe was sold by auction on one of the public squares of
Luneville.
f One little place in Lorraine was exempt from all taxation. This was
Domremy on the Meuse, in the present department of the Vosges, arrondisse-
ment of Neufchateau. The exemption dated from the time of Joan of Arc,
who was born at Domremy in 1412. In the old taxation registers of Lorraine,
against the name of the village there is written, instead of any amount,
" Neant, & cause de la Pucelle " (Nothing, on account of the Maid). The
privilege remained in force until the time of the Revolution,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 185
Porte de Meslay, who followed La Galaiziere fils.
The old regime treated Lorraine and Bar as a state
dependency divided into thirty-six bailliages, or juris-
dictions. The three bishoprics of Metz, Verdun, and
Toul, and their territories still constituted a separate
intendance, or generalite, in the midst, as it were, of
the intendance of Lorraine. Simplification of admini-
strative work was not favoured by the authorities of
those times. A complicated state of affairs implied
a multiplicity of officials and better opportunities for
robbing both the people and the State. Nevertheless
certain changes took place in Lorraine. For instance,
the Sovereign Court of Nancy was transformed into
a parlement, and given supreme jurisdiction even
over the bishoprics, the parlement of Metz being
suppressed so long as Louis XV remained king.
Further, the University of Pont-a-Mousson was trans-
ferred to Nancy (1768), and eight or nine years after-
wards Nancy and Saint-Die became ecclesiastical
sees. Down to the time of the Revolution there
remained only one military governorship, which was
located at Nancy. Probably the most distinguished
soldier who held this post in the eighteenth century
was Marshal de Choiseul-Stainville.
Under Stanislas and the succeeding French ad-
ministration the population of Lorraine increased
considerably,* but there was a steady diminution of
the number of people engaged in agriculture. This
was largely due to the frequent recurrence of bad
seasons and the better livelihood provided by industrial
occupations. Although, curiously enough, there was
no free trade (except in grain) with the rest of France,
industry and commerce expanded. Nancy grew apace,
largely by reason of its manufactures. Among the
* In 1778 the figure was 894,275, and in 1789, 934,860.
186 THE TRUE STORY OF
many kinds of goods made there and in neighbouring
towns during the latter part of the eighteenth century
were carpets, tapestry, plush, cloth, ribbons, hosiery,
and candles. Other branches of industry were a
special kind of embroidery, organ-building, wood-carv-
ing, marquetry, and terra-cotta work. Beer appears
to have been brewed only at Nancy and Dieulouard.
There were spirit, liqueur, and syrup distilleries at
Luneville and elsewhere. A special kind of vulne-
raire, into which iron or steel entered, was made in
Lorraine and supplied largely to French soldiers in
the field for the treatment of wounds. Perfumery
and vinegar works were also to be found. There were
tanneries all over the province. Drugget and coarse
cloth were largely manufactured. Among the adepts
in arts and crafts one finds many painters, engravers,
sculptors, woodcarvers, faience- workers, embroiderers,
and gilders. Cutlers, toolmakers, and locksmiths were
also numerous. The salt industry, which supplied
the old regime with an important source of revenue,
likewise expanded, the salines of Moyenvic, Dieuze,
and Chateau-Salins being largely worked. The salt-
water spring of Rosieres was destroyed, however, by
somebody tampering with it. The glass-works of
Baccarat were yet more and more developed. Metal-
lurgical industry increased ; and there was much
basket-making in the region around Verdun, many
osier beds existing beside the Meuse.
Nevertheless beggars are said to have abounded,
and the nobility, whether of sword or of gown, was
more numerous than ever. The late Cardinal Mathieu,
a native of Lorraine, admits in one of his works that
gross abuses prevailed among the clergy, particularly
the regulars. The exactions of the numerous abbeys
and convents were very great. The Carthusian Order
ALSACE-LORRAINE 187
was the only one cited for its charity. The Chapters
of Noble Ladies, established at Remiremont, Poussay,
Epinal, Romaric, Bouxieres, etc., seldom proved
benevolent, but usually acted in a very grasping
manner towards their tenantry. These foundations,
however, declined considerably during the twenty
years preceding the Revolution. In 1789 the Chapter
of Remiremont still counted fifty-two members,
but Epinal had only twenty -two, Poussay seventeen,
and Bouxieres a baker's dozen. With regard to
crime it is stated that between 1737 and 1790 there
were 203 sentences to the galleys for life, and
274 to the galleys for various periods. Robbery
was the offence most usually visited with these
punishments. Only some fifty cases of crimes of
violence are recorded in the lists, together with
fourteen cases of forgery, three of incest, and forty-
eight of common debauchery. I find no exact figures
respecting the number of people executed, either by
hanging or by strangulation. There was a case of
profaning an historic chapel, for which the offenders
suffered death, after first having their right hands
burnt off ; and another of pillaging a house near
Phalsbourg, for which seven peasants underwent capital
punishment, it being afterwards discovered that all
of them were innocent !
In 1788 Louis XVI's Minister, Lomenie de Brienne,
attempted a general reorganization of Lorraine. The
parlement of Metz,* restored after the previous King's
* The parlements of the old French regime were not parliaments as we
understand them nowadays, but more particularly high courts of justice.
Their chief administrative duties were to register the edicts emanating from
the throne, which, on being registered, acquired force of law. Their chief
political right was that of remonstrating when they regarded some edict
as being unduly harsh, but their refusals to register and their remonstrances
were generally overruled in one or another way.
188 THE TRUE STORY OF
death, was again deposed by Maupeou, the Royal
Chancellor, and Lomenie, deciding to form a provincial
assembly in its stead, caused edicts to that effect to
be registered at Nancy. The Lorrainers, attached
to their ancient methods and customs, however
out of date they might be, protested against the
innovation, denounced the Minister as a partisan of
despotism, and demanded the restoration of the
old parlement. The authorities eventually had to
give way in this matter, and the councillors were
reinstated. They then imagined themselves secure
in their seats, but at that very moment the
Revolution, by which all antiquated forms of
jurisdiction were swept away, was on the point of
exploding.
When the States General were convoked in 1789
Lorraine was allotted thirty-six members nine of
the clergy, nine of the nobility, and eighteen of the
third estate. The nobles, over whom presided the
amorous poet-soldier, the Chevalier de Boufflers, made
very liberal proposals to the third estate, who were
largely intent on securing one or another privilege
for their respective towns. The hard-pressed peasantry
did not rise, and although it was at Varennes in the
Argonne, on the confines of Lorraine, that Louis XVI
and his family were stopped when attempting to flee
the country, large numbers of people of rank and
position opposed to the Revolution were able to
cross the province without let or hindrance and make
their way into Germany. In August 1790 a san-
guinary affray occurred at Nancy. The ill-paid
soldiers of the garrison mutinied and seized the regi-
mental chests, whereupon the Marquis de Bouille,
who commanded the forces at Metz, received orders
to put down the rebellion. His troops almost anni-
ALSACE-LORRAINE 189
hilated the Swiss Chateauvieux regiment, with which
the poorer folk of Nancy sided the more willingly
as, at the taking of the Bastille in the previous year,
these same Switzers had refused to fire on the Parisians.
According to the generally received account no fewer
than 3000 people were killed in the contest at Nancy,
and Bouille left on the glorious name he had inherited
a stain which was only effaced by the heroism of his
descendants, several of whom gave their lives for
France in the dark, desperate days of 1870. Of the
few mutineer-soldiers who were not struck down in
the fighting, Bouille* caused one to be broken on the
wheel, although all forms of torture were abolished by
law. Twenty-one he hanged, and forty-one he sent to
the galleys, from which, however, the Revolution as it
progressed delivered them.
Lorraine rose when the Prussians and Austrians
invaded France. Her people were essentially warlike
and all classes contributed to the armies of the
Republic. When Epinal was asked for a hundred
volunteers more than double that number came
forward in one day. On the department of the
Vosges, after contributing five battalions of soldiers,
being asked to raise another 2600 men, it supplied
6400 within a week. Appeals were also made for
money, and the district of Neufchateau at once
furnished 200,000 livres, though it was already paying
120,000 in taxation. Twice did the National Conven-
tion decree that the department of the Vosges had
" deserved well of the country." In March 1793,
after providing fifteen battalions of troops, it con-
tributed yet another one to the national defence.
There were similar efforts in all parts of Lorraine.
Church bells were taken down and sent to the foundries
to be cast into cannon. Although many townships
190 THE TRUE STORY OF
were on the verge of starvation, corn, flour, and oats
were poured into the strongholds of Metz, Strasburg,
Sarrelouis, and Landau to provide for their garrisons.
Cereals were even dispatched to other parts of France
where the distress was particularly great. Many of
the soldiers of the Lorrainer and Alsatian regiments
became distinguished men. It was said of Phalsbourg
that it not only gave France a marshal Lobau
but that one out of every six of its inhabitants became
a general, and that each of its houses supplied either
a colonel or two battalion commanders. The popula-
tion of the eastern provinces was animated with feel-
ings of detestation for the invaders from across the
Rhine. Neither Lorrainer nor Alsatian had been
well treated by the old French regime, but in the
great hurly-burly of the Revolution they showed
how French their sentiments had become. Their
blood was mingled freely with that of the other
defenders of the country, as though from the
very dawn of history they had always been her
sons.
The most conspicuous representative of Lorraine
in the National Convention was that democratic
Gallican, the Abbe Gregoire, a native of Veho in the
Meurthe, and parish priest of Embermenil. He acted
for a time as Constitutional Bishop of Blois, and
under the Consulate became a member of the Senate.
He and Carnot, who was a member of the Tribunat,
were the only two representatives who protested
against Napoleon's assumption of the Imperial dignity.
There were few revolutionary excesses in Lorraine.
Even when hatred of Austria, whose Emperor was
descended from the old ducal house, prompted the
Revolutionists of Nancy to remove the coffins of
some of his ancestors from the Church of the Cor-
ALSACE-LORRAINE 191
deliers, the remains were not burnt or cast to the
winds according to the general practice of those times,
but were simply consigned to one of the public ceme-
teries. As for the Revolutionary Tribunal, which
sat at Mirecourt, it was probably the most humane
and lenient in all France. According to one of the
province's historians it sent in all only nine persons
to the guillotine.
The patriotic fervour continued unabated under
Napoleon, who, as historians have recorded, derived
some of his most eminent captains as well as his best
regiments from Alsace-Lorraine. Metz resisted the
Allies victoriously both in 1814 and 1815. Francs-
tireurs roamed the woodlands and the hill-sides, ever
on the alert to pounce upon small parties of the
invaders. The Emperor's first fall brought depression,
but elation supervened when he returned from Elba.
The Hundred Days ended, however, with the crash
of Waterloo, and Prussia then greedily tried to lay
her hands on at least a part of Lorraine as well as
the whole of Alsace. Seventy-two communes cover-
ing over 153,000 acres of territory and counting
40,000 inhabitants were wrested from France by the
treaty of November 20, 1815, the greater part going
to Rhenish Prussia and the rest to the Bavarian
Palatinate. I have already mentioned, I think, that
among the towns secured by Prussia was Sarrelouis,
the birthplace of Marshal Ney. Dupin aine, who
defended Ney when he was tried for high treason
to Louis XVIII, wished to argue that Sarrelouis and
its people having been transferred to a foreign Power,
the Marshal was not amenable to a French court
on the specific charge brought against him, as he
owned no allegiance to the French Crown. Ney,
however, interrupted his counsel violently : " No,
192 THE TRUE STORY OF
no ! " he exclaimed, " I accept none of that. I am
a Frenchman, and I will die one ! " *
A most reactionary policy followed the second
Restoration of the Bourbons. Clericalism became
rampant in the Legislature, and Lorraine, once
favourably known to the clergy for its Catholic senti-
ments, was at an early date the scene of an attempted
" Revival," originated by the Bishop of Nancy,
Charles Auguste de Forbin-Janson, who ended by
organizing missions which travelled hither and thither
through France, endeavouring to promote a return
to religious observances. Against that, in itself,
there is nothing to be said, but the Church, in its
zeal for its own interests and those of the restored
monarchy, endeavoured to capture all political in-
fluence, invariably weighing upon the electorate in
favour of its own candidates and opposing the appoint-
ment even to trifling offices of any who did not
subscribe to its authority. This degenerated into
a more or less direct persecution of all who were
inclined to liberal ideas in politics or to freedom of
thought in religious matters. At one moment all
the deputies for Lorraine and virtually all the function-
aries of its four departments belonged to the Clericalist
party.
Aided so powerfully by the clergy throughout
France, the Bourbon Government doubtless imagined
itself to be secure. But a change gradually set in,
and various liberal and democratic candidates were
returned by the electors of Lorraine in 1827. The
Liberal Lorrainers in the last legislature of the Restora-
tion included some distinguished soldiers for instance,
* Dupin's argument was highly fallacious, Ney's offence having been
committed whilst Sarrelouia was French territory and under the rule of
Louis XVIII.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 193
Marshal Count Lobau, a native of Phalsbourg, and
Colonel Jacqueminot, whose name has been per-
petuated by a famous rose. Another eminent Lor-
rainer inclined to Liberalism was Baron Louis, born
at Toul, and an expert in finance. At the head of
the democratic party were MM. Marchal and Thou-
venel, the latter of whom afterwards went over to
Napoleon III, and became for a time his Minister
for Foreign Affairs being indeed the best man who
held that post under the Second Empire.
The Revolution of 1830 which set Louis Philippe
on the throne was attended by trouble on the Prussian
frontier. The inhabitants of those districts of the
department of the Moselle which had been wrested
from France in 1815 and consigned to Prussian
domination, began to agitate for their return to
France. Now that a more liberal regime seemed to
be impending in that country they wished to escape
from the Prussian thraldom which they had endured
for fifteen years. The movement was particularly
pronounced at Sarrelouis, Saint- Wendel, and Hem-
bach. But the Prussian authorities promptly inter-
vened, and many people were arrested and sent to
prison for indefinite periods, without being allowed
any form of trial. Louis Philippe's Government soon
found itself beset with difficulties at home, and was
never at any time strong enough to attempt the
recovery of the territory lost by the treaty which
followed Napoleon's downfall. It is as well to mention
that the agitation to which I have referred appears
to have been confined at this time almost exclusively
to the districts annexed to Rhenish Prussia. There
was not the same degree of bitter discontent among
the folk whose lands had been transferred to the
Bavarian Palatinate. French historians of Lorraine
N
194 T&E TRUE STORY OF
admit that the Bavarian rule was far less harsh than
the Prussian rule, and that, under the former, the
educational system was a liberal one.
Like other parts of France, Lorraine became the
scene of a strenuous democratic struggle which con-
tinued throughout the reign of Louis Philippe. The
province's foremost parliamentary champion at this
period was Henri Boulay de la Meurthe, a native of
Nancy, who, after Louis Philippe's fall, became Vice-
President of the Republic. He was the son of Antoine
Boulay born at Chamousey in the Vosges who, in
conjunction with Portalis, framed a large part of
that division of the so-called Code Napoleon which
is known as the Code civil. In addition to the demo-
cratic agitation there were a few plots in Lorraine
during Louis Philippe's reign. One was started at
Lun6ville by some dragoon officers and " non-coms.,"
with the object of restoring the Empire, but no legal
proofs against those who were implicated in this
affair could be produced. At last came the wide-
spread demand for parliamentary Reform, with all
its banqueting and oratory, which in 1848 culminated
in the dethronement of the House of Orleans. Amidst
all the dramatic events of that year of vain efforts
to gain liberty when even the Germans tried to
free themselves the people of the Sarre valley,
separated from France since 1815, once more sought
reunion, and this time those who were Bavarian
well as those who were Prussian subjects desired to
become citizens of the new-born French Republic.
With that object a great demonstration took place
at Saarbriicken (November 1848), when French,
Prussian, and Bavarian Republicans fraternized.
But the revolutionary movements in Germany were
put down. The Bavarian and Prussian authorities
ALSACE-LORRAINE 195
asserted their power, and the folk of the Sarre valley
had to remain as they were.
At the election for the presidency of the French
Republic the clergy of Lorraine vigorously supported
Prince Louis Napoleon against General Cavaignac.
Nevertheless the proportion of the votes which the
last named secured was higher than in most other
parts of France. The number of electors who voted
for him in the four departments of the Meurthe, the
Meuse, the Moselle, and the Vosges was 67,065.
But, on the other hand, no fewer than 287,525 votes
were polled by the man whose policy in later years
led to the loss of Metz and other parts of North-
Eastern Lorraine. As I remarked when writing of
Alsace, the name of Napoleon was still one to conjure
with in 1848. After the coup d'etat ninety-two
Lorrainer Republicans suffered proscription in one
or another form, and fifty-seven of these belonged
to the department of the Meurthe, in which Nancy,
Luneville, Toul, and Briey were situated. From this
one may infer that the Meurthe was the region in
which Republicanism was most numerously repre-
sented. In the Vosges twenty-one persons were
proscribed. In the Moselle (capital, Metz) the number
fell to twelve, and in the Meuse to three.* Later,
in 1858, after the life of Napoleon III had been
attempted by Felix Orsini, and by virtue of a tyran-
nical Law of Public Safety imposed upon the French
Legislature, and against which Marshal MacMahon,
* In the'Meurthe two persons were deported to Cayenne and fifteen to
Algeria ; whilst thirteen were banished, nineteen interned, and eight placed
under police surveillance, with fixed residences from which they might not
remove. In the Vosges three were sent to Cayenne and seven to Algeria,
eight were banished, and three interned. In the Moselle seven were exiled,
one was interned, and four were placed under surveillance. The three Meuse
eases were deportations to Algeria, that is, to Lambegsa, a penal station of
infamous memory,
196 THE TRUE STORY OF
in the Senate, alone had the moral courage to protest,
a number of leading Lorrainers were arbitrarily
arrested and consigned to the Algerian inferno of
Lambessa. Not one of them, in fact no Frenchman
in the whole length and breadth of the Empire, had
in any way participated in Orsini's attempt. Their
sole offence was that they had expressed their detesta-
tion of the tyranny of the Imperial rule. That
tyranny had abated when in 1866 Lorraine celebrated
the centenary of its union with France. The material
prosperity which the Empire undoubtedly brought
with it, as I showed when writing of Alsace, was then
in its zenith, and people readily gave themselves up
to festivity. There was at the moment no appre-
hension of war. The sudden brief struggle between
Prussia and Austria did not occur until some months
later. Bismarck and his master had not yet begun
to cut up Germany, or shown that their ravenous
appetites would not be sufficiently glutted unless, in
addition to Hanover, Brunswick, Nassau, and divers
smaller States, they were also able to secure a succu-
lent slice of France. Besides, whatever might be
thought of Napoleon III, there was every confidence
in the French army, which was supposed to be of
full strength, most powerfully organized, and admir-
ably equipped. Every year, just beyond the western
confines of Lorraine, and on the very plain which
had witnessed the defeat of Attila and his Huns,
there was displayed the superb pageantry of the
Camp of Chalons, that great gathering of Grenadiers,
Voltigeurs, Zouaves, Turcos, Cuirassiers, Dragoons,
Lancers, and other soldiery, all spickfand span in
vivid uniforms, and drilled to perfection. Sham
fights were lost and won, camp-fires blazed, salutes
thundered, drums rolled, trumpets blared, and the
ALSACE-LORRAINE 197
winds from the west carried the martial sounds across
the plateau of Lorraine, instilling complete confidence
in all who heard them. Who indeed could then have
foreseen a Worth, a Gravelotte, a Sedan, a Metz ?
Lorraine, the land of Joan of Arc, deemed herself
well guarded from invasion. None of her sons or
her daughters imagined that in a few brief years a
day would dawn when the foe would be upon them,
and that they would call in vain upon the Maid of
Domremy to free them as she had once freed France.
VII
ALSATIANS AND LORRAINERS
Physical Characteristics of the Alsatians : Their former picturesque
Costumes : The Lorrainer Race : The Language Question and the
German Claims to the Provinces : A Specimen of Lorraine Dialect :
Early German Annexationist Propaganda : Linguistic Limits and
Place-Names : More Specimens of Dialects : Variations of Speech
in Alsace : Famous and Eminent Men given by the Provinces to
France : Soldiers, Statesmen, Scientists, Authors, Artists, and
others : The Chivalry of Lorraine : The Storks of Alsace.
IT has been indicated already that a great diversity
of physical characteristics will be found among the
Alsatians. They differ from one another according to
the part of the country which they inhabit the
Rhine bank, the plain, the lower slopes, and the
mountains. The folk of the plain, who are the most
numerous, are vigorous, of average height, and well
proportioned, with strong bones, pronounced features,
and fresh, often quite ruddy, complexions. Some of
them have fair hair, others hair of varying shades of
brown, others hair of an almost flaring red, but black
hair is very seldom found among them. Both blue
and brown eyes are seen. The women are generally
well developed and make first-rate nurses. They
have remarkably good teeth. In the southern part
of the plain the men are taller than elsewhere, quick
in their movements, with sanguine temperaments
and a bearing suggestive of innate pride. In the
centre of the plain darker hair than in the south is
observed, and the people are more phlegmatic. In
the north, where hair of extreme fairness predominates,
198
ALSACE-LORRAINE 199
the inhabitants are generally inclined to a more
slender build, and display great suppleness of motion.
The girls with their fresh complexions are often
charming, but hard work ages them rapidly. To-
wards the Rhine a pale and lymphatic type is found,
and cases of goitre may often be observed.
The folk seen on the lower spurs of the Vosges
are fairly robust, but inclined to be pale and lean. It
is hereabouts that red hair is most often noticed,
though light brown is the prevailing colour. A cer-
tain sickliness used to be found in the narrow valleys,
where the dwelling-places were often unhealthy and
the food poor the people subsisting on bread com-
pounded of rye, barley, and buckwheat, potatoes, a
little salt bacon, and curdled milk. As for the folk of
the Vosges highlands, they differ from other Alsatians,
and approximate more to the Lorraine and Franche-
Comte* types. The men are tall and very strong, the
women also tall and fresh-coloured. They dwell (I
refer, of course, to pre-war days) on isolated farms
among what are called the hautes chaumes (high
stubbles), and cattle-raising and cheese-making are
their principal avocations. The farms are known as
marcairies * and the people as marcaires.
The differences in the physique of the Alsatians
arise from a variety of causes, such as local habitat,
occupation, and the preponderance of one or another
racial element, the country, as was explained in my
previous chapters, having been overrun by many
ancient tribes and later by the soldiery of numerous
contending nations. A long ancestry stretching
through centuries of warfare has made the Alsatian,
generally, a very courageous man. In old days
voluntary enlistments were very numerous. The
* The forms marcairerie and marquairerie are also sometimes used.
200 THE TRUE STORY OF
average Alsatian has always proved an efficient non-
commissioned officer. His great predilection for the
cavalry service is combined with genuine solicitude
for his mount. In civil life he is a good and orderly
worker, clean and methodical in his habits. There is
some variation in his disposition according to his
religion, the Catholic being perhaps more inclined to
gaiety than the Protestant. Rectitude is one of the
Alsatian's strong points, and he is almost invariably
hospitable to strangers and charitable to those of his
neighbours who may meet with misfortune. The
gaiety to which I have referred seeks satisfaction in
somewhat noisy pleasures. The Alsatian sings his
loudest, perhaps in order to show the power of his
lungs. Both lads and girls are born dancers, and
trip it freely, as do also the older folk, on festive
occasions.
One of the intendants of Alsace under the old
regime endeavoured to compel the inhabitants to
abandon their picturesque costumes, derived in part
from Switzerland and in part from Southern Germany.
This attempt failed, and during the Revolution
Saint-Just and Lebas, whilst acting as Commissaries
of the Republic at Strasburg, made a similar effort,
saying to the women of the Alsatian capital that as
their hearts were French they ought to follow the
fashions of France. The old costumes were still
favoured, however, in the rural districts down to our
own times. In winter men would be seen wearing
round fur caps, in summer broad felt hats, the brims
of which were raised at the sides but lowered in front
so as to shade the eyes from the sun. On work-days
Alsatian villagers would go about in short jackets
somewhat like those of Eton boys, but on high days
and holidays they donned long, black, high-collared
ALSACE-LORRAINE 201
frock-coats, under which were seen red waistcoats
decorated with an abundance of silver buttons. The
men did not take kindly to trousers, but preferred
breeches, with stockings, or gaiters, or boots of soft
leather reaching to the knees. The women, parti-
cularly the younger ones, often looked as if they had
just stepped from a stage where some operetta had
been performed. Their serge skirts, usually green in
colour, were embellished in the lower part with broad
bands of scarlet or crimson. Under their black,
sleeveless bodices, embroidered in front with bright
silk, and further adorned with ribbons, you saw
chemisettes, whose ample sleeves of the bouffant pattern,
were daintily pleated. If the weather necessitated a
little protection, fichus or small shawls were cast over
their shoulders. On gala days coloured stockings and
buckled shoes were worn ; whilst the almost invariable
headgear surmounting the braided tresses was a tiny
cap with a huge black " butterfly " bow, or, as the
French put it, a bow aux ailes de pigeon. In the
Vosgian district of Orbey (Urbeis), where the country
girls were often of a slender and refined type, with
supple figures and a graceful carriage, they wore
light-coloured cornettes bordered with black velvet
and decked with ribbons ; and bright p'mk fichus were
often crossed over their dark bodices.
In more recent times the men of Alsace have
dressed like other citizens, artisans or peasants of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The women also
have generally cast aside the national costumes.
Only quite young girls still wear the large black
butterfly bows, which were once as characteristic of
the Alsacienne as the mantilla was of the Sevillana.
Paris fashions have much to answer for at the bar of
the Picturesque. They have relegated such garb as I
202 THE TRUE STORY OP
have been describing to the regions of " auld lang
syne " :
Add, add, add, those times have passed away,
Yet the blue Alsatian mountains they watch and wait alway.
I previously indicated that minute investigations
in all parts of Lorraine have shown its people possess-
ing, both in the past and in the present, skulls of the
brachycephalic type rounded at the summit a usual
characteristic of the French Gaelic race. In the many
tumuli and ancient ossuaries that had been searched
in one or another part of the province down to the
year 1862, nearly every skull that was examined was
of the aforementioned type.* In 1886 Dr. Collignon
wrote in his " Anthropologie de la Lorraine " :
" Whether you content yourself with looking at the
country-folk as you pass them, or whether, turning to
the dead, you search the ossuaries and the most
ancient burial-places of the whole country, the result
remains the same, be the districts those which are
reputed Germanic or those which are known to be
French. The great majority of the skulls, and in
some places all of them, are brachycephalic." There
is considerable resemblance to the Auvergnat type ;
and it is held that although the Lorrainer is not a pure
Celt he has great affinity with that race. Two
eminent scientists, Broca and Topinard, classed him,
by reason of his stature and other characteristics,
among the tall, fair, but long-headed Kymri. Various
discoveries support the view that at the time of the
Germanic irruptions many of the original Celts took
refuge in the mountainous districts, leaving the
invaders in the valleys, where they appear to have
mingled with the older races. According to a map
* " Etude ethnologique BUT 1'Origine des Populations Lorraines M6moires
de 1' Academic de Stanislas." 1862.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 203
given by Dr. Collignon there was a mixed zone cover-
ing the whole basin of the Moselle, but surrounded by
a Celtic zone which included the Thionville, Sarregue-
mines, and Vosgian districts. In a sense, then, there
existed two Lorraines, whose borders often varied
according to the vicissitudes of the times, and whose
people were distinguished from one another by their
speech. The various irruptions and conflicts which
occurred resulted from the country's situation. Geo-
graphically it is part of the basin of Paris, but it
is also linked to the Rhenish system, and ethno-
logically, historically, and socially has always borne
the impress of its twofold geographical position.
Language is by no means an indisputable proof of
race. In this country of ours there are many folk
who speak only the English language, yet are English
only in a legal and not in a racial sense. Every child
that is born in Britain is accounted a British subject,
although not even a drachm of the blood of any of
the British races may flow in its veins. Take one
instance out of many. Large numbers of Italians of
both sexes come to this country. They marry here,
or are married before their arrival, and children are
born to them here. These children go to English
schools, where they acquire our language, and I know
of numerous instances in which they are conversant
with only a few words of the parental tongue. Never-
theless, in spite of their English speech they are not
English racially. Again, conquerors have at times
imposed their language on the conquered. In these
later years the Prussians have particularly striven to
do so. They have all but stamped out the ancient
Wendish speech, and they have exerted themselves to
impose German on their Polish subjects to the exclu-
sion of the latter's national language. Although, as
204 THE TRUE STORY OF
scientists show, there has been a Germanic element in
Lorraine, or rather in its north-eastern part, for many
centuries, and the people in that particular region
have taken to the German speech, it by no means
follows that the bulk of them are of the German race.
It was pointed out at the time of the annexation of
North-Eastern Lorraine in 1871 that no German was
then spoken at Metz, Thionville, Boulay, Saint- Avoid,
Chateau-Salins, or Dieuze, where French had always
prevailed from at least the sixteenth century.
By French I do not mean pure French of the
literary description. The provinces of old France had
their particular, varying idioms. That of the Picards
was probably the one which most contributed to the
French language as we know it to-day. With regard
to the Lorraine dialects one finds that in the earlier
part of the eighteenth century they were formed
mostly of old French mingled with corrupt Celtic and
Latin words. Going back to distant times it may be
pointed out that when the kingdom of Lotharingia
was formed, Lothair took the famous " Oath of
Strasburg " in words compounded of very ancient
French and lower Latin, whereas his uncle Louis
the Germanic repeated the same formula in early
German.
In a book of mine entitled " In Seven Lands," I
supplied a specimen of Lorraine dialect as it was
some fifty years ago, and I will quote it here :
Quand j' dansions chus 1'orme
J'eun niotins point d' c6 grands chepe
Qu'etaient si bin enjolivet,
Que d6velint pus bas qu'eul net.
J'eun motins ni bouff ni bouffants
Et ni ceintur' de b6 rubans.
Nos cotillons et nos corsets
Sont co pus b6 que ces affiquets.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 205
The German claims to North-Eastern Lorraine and
the whole of Alsace were based largely on linguistic
considerations. These claims were brought forward
as early as 1856 by a Hanoverian professor named
Nabert, who wrote a pamphlet on the " mission " of
the German nation to subject to their laws and
institutions the whole of those " territories of the
Scheldt and the Rhine where their language was
spoken." It will be noted that the professor cast his
net widely, including in it not only Alsace-Lorraine,
but also the Netherlands w r hose people, the Dutch
and the Flemings, he regarded as Germans by reason
of their speech. Only by annexing those lands, said
Nabert, could Germany deliver herself from constant
warfare with her western neighbours.
Kiepert, the geographer, afterwards addressed him-
self to this subject, but with reference more par-
ticularly to Alsace-Lorraine, which he visited before
producing in 1867 the first edition of a map on which
he indicated what districts Germany ought to claim.
This map * was again reissued in 1871, 1875, and
1888 by way of " fortifying " the German right to the
annexed provinces ; and in conjunction with the Pan-
German Richard Boeck, Kiepert also produced, during
the war of 1870, a so-called " Historische Karte von
Elsass-Lothringen." In the previous year Boeck,
who was one of the most zealous partisans of the
annexation of all so-called " lost lands " wherever
they might be, had published at Berlin a work
entitled " Der Deutschen Volkzahl und Sprachgebiet
in den Europaeischen Staaten." In the middle of the
war, moreover, a certain Petermann issued a book on
Alsace accompanied by exaggerated language maps.
" Special-Karte der deutsch-franzosichen Grenzlander, mit Ausgabe
der Sprachgrenze." (Berlin: Eeemer,)
206 THE TRUE STORY OF
Bismarck knew these maps and writings well. He may
have inspired them. At all events they were at his
elbow, and at Moltke's also, when in 1871 the pre-
liminaries of peace with France were negotiated with
Thiers and Jules Favre.
Boeck accused the French Government of all sorts
of high crimes and misdemeanours in regard to its
so-called " German " subjects ; and with respect to
the language question, he found, as I previously re-
lated, some supporters among the Alsatian clergy,
notably Pastor Baum and a Catholic priest of
Strasburg bearing the French name of Cazeaux. That
the French Government was justified in endeavouring
to diffuse among the Alsatian peasantry a wider
knowledge of French, such as prevailed among the
better-educated classes of the towns, goes without
saying ; but the prefects of the Second Empire were
often overzealous, and did much harm by interfering
in matters which they had better have left alone.
Thus a great mistake was made when in certain rural
districts of Alsace a fine of a sou was imposed on all
school-children who were heard conversing together in
German dialect. Whatever the sentiments of the
Alsatians might be they had again and again proved
their patriotic devotion to France the old-time
Germanic speech was dear to many of them. It was
the same as with the Bretons. None fought in
1870-71 more bravely for France than did the Celts
of the Armorican peninsula. But they were strongly
attached to their national speech, and many knew no
other. I can remember instances in which the word
of command given in French was immediately after-
wards repeated in Breton, for there were many Breton
battalions in the Second Loire Army to which I was
attached.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 207
At the time of Louis XIV the knowledge of
French was certainly more restricted in Alsace than it
afterwards became, and it is not surprising that when
that monarch gave orders to draft all legal judgments
and public notifications in French it was found
impossible to carry out his instructions, particularly
in several of the rural districts where French was
quite unknown. Some years ago M. Charles Pfister,
a native of the annexed provinces, and a Professor of
the Faculty of Letters at Nancy, endeavoured to draw
a line of demarcation between the French-speaking
and German-speaking districts.* His labours tended
to show the great complexity of the question. Al-
though, here and there, a linguistic limit could be
traced with comparative ease over a distance of
several miles, in other parts one was constantly
confronted by little French or German enclaves locked,
as it were, in the midst of a district where the other
language was spoken. In these later years the
Reichsland authorities have exerted themselves more
and more strenuously to Germanize the whole of the
annexed territory, imposing their language on the
people by methods which virtually absolute French
rulers, such as Louis XIV and Napoleon III, shrank
from adopting. It follows that some of M. Pfister's
facts may now be out of date, nevertheless his brochure
is instructive, for it shows what was the position some
twenty-seven years ago that is, a score of years after
the German annexation.
In Southern Alsace, towards the Swiss frontier, a
line of demarcation was supplied by a streamlet
called the Lucelle, on one side of which were two
* " La Limite de la Langue fran?aise en Alsace-Lorraine." (Paris, 1890. )
This pamphlet of forty pages is probably the best refutation of certain GermSQ
claims.
208 THE TRUE STORY OF
villages, Levoncourt and Courtavon (renamed Luffen*
dorf and Ottendorf by the Germans), where French
was spoken almost exclusively. The same language
was used at the village of Lucelle and at that of
Oberlarg in the vicinity, though in the last-named
locality the Alsatian Germanic dialect predominated.
More to the west, the frontier traced in 1871 took no
account of linguistic considerations. Although Thiers
succeeded in saving the cantons of Giromagny and
Delle, besides Belfort, for France, he was obliged to
surrender a number of exclusively French villages to
the Germans. These places, anciently dependencies
of the lordship of Montreux, had afterwards formed
part of the French cantons of Dannemarie and Fon-
taine. They included, first, in addition to Dannemarie
itself, Magny, Romagny (Willern), Latran, Valdieu
(Gottestal), Montreux -Vieux, Montreux- Jeune, and
Chavannes-sur-1'Etang ; and, secondly, Saint-Cosme,
Belmagny (Bernetzweiler), Eteimbes (Welschenstein-
bach) and Bretten, in the upper valley of the
Traubach, a tributary of the Largue. No linguistic
reason could be assigned for the annexation of any
one of those localities, nevertheless Bismarck insisted
on appropriating them.
To the north of Eteimbes the heights separating
the valley of Saint-Nicolas from that of Massevaux,
and the basin of the Rhone from that of the Rhine,
constituted a linguistic line of separation, and became
in 1871 the political frontier. Going northward, the
Vosgian crests supplied roughly a linguistic as well as
a political boundary. Among the people dwelling in
the valleys of the Doller, the Thur, the Lauch, and the
Fecht, the Alsatian dialect has always predominated,
but in the valley of the Weiss, a tributary of the
Fecht, and not far from Miinster, there is a district
ALSACE-LORRAINE 209
where, before the annexation of 1871, no German was
currently spoken, though here and there it might
be understood. Even German philologists formerly
admitted that the communes of Orbey, Le Bonhomme,
and Freland (now Urbach), dependent on La Poultroie,
as well as the little Baroche or Zell side valley, whose
houses are scattered below the castle of Hohneck,
were entirely Welsch. As I may have to use this
word Welsch again, it is as well, perhaps, to explain
that the Germans derive it from Gallicus, and apply
it in contemptuous fashion to folk of the Gallic race.
In the little district to which I have been referring,
the people differ from the more Germanic race located
in the plain. Pfister says that on market days at
Kaysersberg it was easy to distinguish the Welsch
mountain-folk from the people dwelling in the lower
wine-growing villages.
With the enclave which has just been mentioned
one may connect Aubure (Altweier) in the district of
Ribeauville (otherwise Rappoltsweiler). Aubure is a
composite locality, one part of it being Catholic and
the other Protestant. In the former French used to
be spoken exclusively, whilst in the latter the German
dialect predominated. Going farther north, the valley
of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (Markirch) was divided
linguistically in similar fashion. Half of the popula-
tion of the town itself spoke French and the other
half German. This peculiarity may have arisen from
the fact that the left side of the valley formerly
belonged to the duchy of Lorraine and the other side
to the Alsatian lordship of Ribeaupierre (Rappolt-
stein) ; but it would be a mistake to regard this
particular instance as a general rule. French patois
has certainly prevailed in some lonely hamlets on the
Lorraine side of the valley, but on following the
210 THE TRUE STORY O^F
Saint-Croix streamlet it will be found that nearly all
the localities are of the German-speaking variety
until at Lievre (Leberau), on the same side, French
speech once more prevails.
The River Lievre drains the valley of Sainte-
Marie and joins the Giessen, which flows into the 111
to the north of Schlestadt. The upper valley of the
Giessen is (or was) linguistically French. Both lan-
guages were spoken at Breitenau, but French was the
speech of Fouday. In a secondary valley, north of
the Giessen, Steige was a Welsch village in spite of
its Germanic name, but, near at hand, Meisengott
favoured the German dialect.
In the frontier part of Alsace near France the
most extensive French-speaking district used to be
the upper valley of the Bruch, which formerly belonged
to the Vosges department. German geographers
claimed, however, that it was, by natural configura-
tion, a part of Alsace, and Bismarck adopted their
view. Nevertheless the towns of Saales and Schirmeck
and all the villages intervening between them were
absolutely Welsch. Hereabouts, in two secondary
valleys, is the so-called Ban de la Roche,* a district
of about eight villages, four of which belonged to the
Vosges department. These villages were exclusively
French, there being no Germanic element whatever in
their population. As a result of the labours of the
famous Pastor Oberlin these little places have long
been Protestant communities, and are indeed the only
French villages professing Protestantism in this part
of Alsace. Jremie Jacques Oberlin, the pastor's
eminent brother, one of the first scholars to recognize
the importance of dialects in connexion with philology,
made a special study of the French patois of the Ban
* See p. 35, ante.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 211
de la Roche. Natzwiller, in much the same district,
has retained, however, the Catholic faith and also the
Germanic dialect, this arising, probably, from the fact
that the commune was formerly a domain of the
Bishops of Strasburg. In some hamlets near Schir-
meck Salm, Quevelles, and Malplaquet Pfister noted
the presence of a Germanic Anabaptist population.
These places were little enclaves, so to say, in the
midst of a Gallic district. Below Schirmeck on the
Bruch, Pfister found that Wisch was quite French
but that Muhlbach was entirely German. Again,
Netzenbach was French. At Lutzelburg (more to the
north, in the canton of Molsheim) both languages
were spoken. Haslach was German and Steiiibach
also ; but Russ, in the immediate neighbourhood,
was a French-speaking locality.
The examples already given will have shown how
impossible it would be to divide Alsace between
France and Germany should any such preposterous
idea ever enter the head of an insane politician in
accordance with strict linguistic principles. The
baffling problem which has confronted generations of
statesmen in the Balkan peninsula would be found on
a smaller scale in Alsace. In the Balkans, of course,
matters are complicated by the fact that not only
differences of race and language have to be considered,
but long - existing racial rivalry, antagonism, and
ambition also. Formerly such elements of contention
scarcely existed among the Alsatians proper, religious
differences being the only ones of any importance ;
but circumstances have changed under the German
domination of the last forty-seven years, which has
planted thousands of people from across the Rhine
on the lands taken from France. As for the Alsatians
themselves, whether they belong linguistically or
212 THE TRUE STORY OF
racially to the Germanic group or the Gallic group,
very few indeed have wavered in their affection for
the land from which they were separated by force in
1871.
Let us now pass from Alsace to Lorraine, proceed-
ing from Netzenbach towards Mount Donon and then
entering the Lotharingian district of Dabo. The little
River Zorn flows through the Vosgian gorges in a
region where only the Alsatian dialect is heard. All
the villages on the Bievre are linguistically Germanic
ones. But the upper valleys of both the Red and the
White Sarre are French. Pfister found that German
was not even understood either at Aboeschwiller,
Turquestein or Lorquin the birthplace of the famous
explorer Crevaux. After the two Sarres have met,
their waters flow in unison through territory which
linguistically is largely French. Pfister noted that
language at Nitting, Hermelange, Imling, and Bebing.
At Sarrebourg both French and German were spoken.
In the canton of Fenestrange German prevailed, but
even here there were two French-speaking communes
Angviller and Bisping. The old Lorrainer districts
of Dieuze, Delme, Vic, and Chateau-Salins never used
any other language than French, to which, of course,
the old patois of Lorraine belongs. More to the north,
however, eleven German-speaking and eight French-
speaking localities were found in the district of
Albestroff. A similar state of affairs existed in the
annexed portion of the former Moselle department.
The people dwelling near the so-called French Nied
spoke French, while those near the German Nied
used both languages, which practice existed also in the
districts of Thionville, Briey, and Longwy.
Many of the geographical names applied to rivers,
towns, villages, etc., in Alsace-Lorraine are un-
ALSACE-LORRAINE 213
doubtedly of Celtic origin. The very name of the
river of which the Germans are so inordinately proud
the Rhine is Celtic, signifying a mass of water.
The name of the Rhone has the same origin, and
there is, by the way, a streamlet called the Rhone
south-west of Metz. The Orne, a tributary of the
Meuse, bears, like the larger Orne in Normandy, a
name of Celtic derivation. The Meuse (Mosa) and the
Moselle (Mosella) owe their appellations to the same
source. The Bievre takes its name from bebros, which
signified beaver in Gallic speech.
Verdun (Virodunum) and Liverdun (Liverdunum)
were, as their names attest, strong places of the Celts.
The Romans, it will be remembered, first called Metz
Divodurum, " the fortress of the gods," after its
Celtic name. Mouzon was known in Roman times as
Mosomagus, " the field of the Meuse." Another
example of the terminal magus is supplied by the
Alsatian town of Brumath, originally Brigamagus.
" Briga," like " dun," signified fortress, and thus we
have Vindobriga (the fortress of Vindos), now the
village of Vandceuvre near Nancy, and Danobriga
(the fortress of Danos), now Denceuvre near Baccarat.
From condate, a confluence, comes Conde* ; from
Novientum is derived Noveant in Lorraine, besides
all the many Nogents scattered throughout France.
Tullum was the original name of Toul, as well as of
Tulle in the Limousin. Even Saletio, the early name
of Seltz, is held to be of Celtic origin. The terminal
acus occurred in many of the Gallo-Roman place-
names of Alsace-Lorraine, Nancy, for instance, being
Nantiacus, the property of Nantius. Roman genti-
litial forms appear in many of the older names, but
sometimes a pure Celtic word sufficed, as in the
case of nant, brave, warlike ; whence one derives
214 THE TRUE STORY OF
both Nant-le-Grand and Nant-le-Petit on the
Meuse.
Several years ago a German writer named Ludwig
Bossier tried to prove that the place-names of Alsace-
Lorraine were Urdeutsch, that is, original or primitive
German ; but it is distinctly a question whether the
many more or less Germanic appellations existing
before the war of 1870-71 it is not worth while
troubling about those devised since then by the
German authorities were really original names or
whether they were merely superposed in such wise as
to cover and conceal earlier Celtic or Roman ones.
It may be accepted that the Celtic substratum, so to
say, of the Alsatian people was overspread with Latin
and German strata. Something similar would seem
to have occurred with respect to place-names.
Pfister points out that the rock bearing the town
of Alt-Breisach in Baden stood on the left or Alsatian
side of the Rhine before that river changed its course,
and that the Romans called it Mons Brisiacus, a
name evidently derived from the Celtic. It is, in
Pfister's opinion, an error to think that the Germaniza-
tion of Alsace dates from the time of Ariovistus,* and
that all the Celts were then thrown back to the
Vosges, where they are represented by the so-called
Welsch of nowadays. Ariovistus was only fourteen
years in the region ; but, on the other hand, the
Tribocci certainly remained in Northern Alsace, and
the Mediomatrici of that region were at last compelled
to withdraw to the west of the Vosges. Now the
Romans succeeded in some matters in which other
nations have failed. They induced the peoples whom
they subdued to accept and adopt their language.
There is evidence that Latin became extensively
* See p. 57 et eeq., ante.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 215
known in Alsace-Lorraine, and that, indeed, from
A.D. 100 to A.D. 350 or thereabouts it was the dominant,
though one cannot say the exclusive, language of the
country. There are numerous localities whose names
are derived directly from Latin. This appears par-
ticularly in the case of places called after particular
kinds of trees. Aulnois-sur-Seille derives its name
from alnetum, a spot planted with alders ; Malroy
comes from malaretum, an apple orchard ; the various
Norroys in Lorraine derived their appellation from
nogaretum, being spots where walnuts abounded.
Again, Preny and Pournoy originated in prunidum ;
the different localities called Bouxieres and also
Bouxwiller were wooded places, bussarice. Plantieres
near Metz was so called from plantarice, whilst Cham-
bieres, now the site of the Metz cemetery, took its
name from canabarice being anciently a place where
hemp was grown. Boulay, called by the Germans
Bolchen, is a corruption of betuletum, the land being
planted with birches. The origin of such names as
Fontenoy and Fontoy is obvious. So is that of
Porcelette (or Porselt), near Saint-Avoid, though it
may be unpleasant to have one's village, perhaps
one's native spot, called the pigsty or piggery.
The terminals mile, wihr, and wilier (Germanized
as weiler) which are observed in so many place-names
of Alsace-Lorraine are all corruptions of the Latin
suffixes villare and villa. Such names as Magny and
Mesnils are derived from mansio and mansionile ;
Maizeroy, Maizery, and Mezieres come from maceries.
Lungenfeld is a German distortion of longavilla ;
Kestenholz a mere translation of castanetum. Colmar
is an abbreviated adaptation of columbarium ; whilst
Zabern, which at first sight might appear to be a
peculiarly German name, is but a cloak thrown over
216 THE TRUE STORY OF
the original tabernce of the Roman legions. There is
a place known as Domfessel in the vicinity of Saar-
union. It was originally Domus vassalorwn. Keskastel,
in the same district, was Ccesaris castellum ; whilst
Singrist, in the neighbourhood of Marmoutier, was
Signum Christi, dating evidently from the Christian
era. In the earlier period of the Roman rule in
Alsace, Strasburg bore the name of Argentoratum.
The first time its modern name appears that is, in
Gregory of Tours, sixth century it takes the form of
Strateburgum. A somewhat later writer says that
this designation was only employed by the vulgar.
However that may be, Strata-burgus the fortress on
the road (from Germany to Gaul) was, as Pfister
points out, as good Latin as Augusto-burgus, the
Roman name of Augsburg. In the case of the
Alsatian capital, the German spelling, Strassburg,
fully conveys the meaning of the earlier Latin appella-
tion.
The foregoing summary will have shown that the
Roman like the Celtic dominion left its mark on the
place-names of Alsace-Lorraine, in such wise as to
dispose largely of the Urdeutsch theories of Herr
Ludwig Bossier. In the fourth century of our era,
however, the German idiom began to spread through
the region. Rome, besides taking many German
barbarians into her service, settled many colonists,
Iceti, in vacant territories. I showed in a previous
chapter that the many Germanic invasions of the
fourth century were repulsed, but it may be assumed
that a certain number of the invaders often remained
in a more or less subject state on the western side of
the Rhine, and that in this wise the Germanic element
increased, until in the sixth century it became the
largest. Nevertheless a Latinized population survived
ALSACE-LORRAINE 217
in the Vosgian parts of Alsace, where its speech
became transformed into the romanesque dialect
which is still current there. Here are a few proverbs
of this region with their equivalents in French :
Pu qu' lo lou e, pu qu'il vu evou (Plus le loup a, plus il veut avoir).
Faire lo dchin pou avou 1'ouse (Faire le chien pour avoir 1'os).
Quo lo pouo a grae il caisse 16 ran (Quand le pore est gras il casse le ran
(etable) ).
II lieie lo dale que n'6 mi ma (II lie le doigt qui n'a pas mal).
Here is another specimen of the Vosgian vernacular.
It shows a man complaining of the weather :
Que to ! j'ai tu aujeduye moyi jusqu'es osse. J'ai tu pou b6chi ; j'voyezor
bi6 enne nouache to nar, m& j'creyezo que ce n' sero rie, et qu' lo gran vo lo
viro pu Ion. Ma il o crove quan i n'etaizor pu to pou r'veni. J'a bie mettu
du ehesse eeu mi, ma c6 n'eimp6chezo mi qu' j'a tu moyi bie-u a poi.
(Quel temps ! J'ai ete aujourd'hui mouil!6 jusqu'aux os. J'ai ete pour
becher, je voyais bien un nuage tout noir, mais je croyais que ce ne serait
rien, et que le grand vent le pousserait plus loin. Mais il est creve, quand il
n'etait plus temps de revenir. J'ai bien mis deux sacs BUT moi, mais a
n'empechait pas que j'ai et6 mouille bien a point.)
Further, here is a child's song, formerly sung in
the Ban de la Roche,* annexed by the Germans and
called by them Steintal. This specimen shows even
a closer resemblance to ordinary French :
Foare, foare mo dchva,
Pou demain alle au sa ;
Foare, foare mo polain,
Pou d' main al!6 au bian pan !
Lo pai, lo pai, lo trot, lo trot,
Lo gailop, Lo gailop !
(Ferre, ferre mon cheval,
Pour aller demain au sel ;
Ferre, ferre mon poulain,
Pour aller demain au blanc pain !
Le pas, le pas, le trot, le trot,
Le galop, le galop !)
A writer named Fallot, who in 1828 produced at
Montbeliard a little book on the patois of Franche-
* See p. 36, ante.
218 THE TRUE STORY OF
Comte^ Lorraine, and Alsace, showing the great
similarity between them, pointed out that a large
number of the words used by the peasantry differed
essentially from Latin, French, and German. As the
present volume is not a dictionary I will content
myself with quoting just a few of the examples which
Fallot gave :
Latin French German Patois
Anas Canard Ente Bourrai
Hortus Jardin Garten Quetchi
Templum Eglise Kirch Motie
Cimex Punaise Wantze Teufion
Whilst the Germanic speech was spreading in
Alsace, it also penetrated into parts of Lorraine. But
the stronghold of Metz, under whose walls the Celto-
Roman inhabitants sought protection, served as a
barrier against both the Tribocci and the Ripuarian
Franks. When in the fifth century Metz succumbed
beneath the onslaughts of Attila and the Huns the
flood-tide of the Germanic invasions had abated. In
496, by the so-called victory of Tolbiac, Clovis destroyed
the power of the Alemanni, and even imposed his
rule on the Ripuarians. Meantime, though Metz and
Toul were swayed by a Frankish chief they retained
their Gallo-Roman language. The patois of Metz
has always differed somewhat from the other dialects
of Lorraine, and I therefore append a few specimens.
The first is taken from a seventeenth-century trimazo
a spring-time song, such songs having been current
in Lorraine since druidical times :
J'a vu trabeun (beaucoup) de beis gueichons
Fliambet d'in coup p6 let qu6nons (canons),
J'a vu zous (leurs) belles desalayes
Treus mois 6pres tot's consolayes.
O trimazo !
S'at (c'est) lo maye, 6 mi maye,
S'at lo jali mois de maye,
S'at lo trimazo !
ALSACE-LORRAINE 219
Here are the opening verses of a vintage song,
formerly familiar in the Pays Messin :
Queu pliaji (plaiair) d'etre en vendome (vendange),
Quand lo s'lat (soleil) dour (dore) les coteaux,
On s' en beille (donne), Dieu salt comme,
En corant p6 monta, pe vaux.
Les gueichons (garc.ons) prach' (pres) des bacelles (filles)
Sent gueuilrets (guillerets) com' des mochats (fauvettes),
Aux peutes (laides) tot com' aux belles
Y font bet (battre) des enteurchats.
Finally the following comes from a comedy written
in the old patois of Metz and entitled " Lo Meriege
des Brau ves " (" Le Mariage des Braves ").
Seine premire. Suzon, 6rangeant let chambe et 1'erazant (le balayant) ;
Charle, Joseph, en hebits de militares, lo preumin (le premier) eva 1'epaye
(1'epee) en bandoliere ; lo s'gond eva in sabe (sabre) de memo, et chequin
des mosteches et in ptiat beton e let main.
Joseph. Boinjo, let bele afant, v' feyeus mou bei cheuz vos.
Suzon. Vat' servante. . . . Qu'as' qu'il y et po vat' service ?
Joseph. Je v'nans v' demandet e sopet et in boin lit.
Charle. Que j' vos priera d' bien baisnet (bassiner), s' let fat done bien
quand on at had6 (fatigue).
Suzon. J'mattra, si v' volens, in pou d' seuq (sucre) dans les baisneure
(bassinoire), si s'let v' fat pliaji (plaisir).
Certain words, such as boin (bon), in (un), let (la),
^ and et (a and a), remain the same in the different
Lorraine dialects. This is shown by the opening
stanza of an old Noel sung at Nancy and Epinal :
Enne (une) jeune baisselle (bacelle, bachelle)
De boin paran,
Que fut toujou pucelle
En sa viquant,
Dehant in jou
Ses patenot (paten6tres) et set chambe,
Vit in eindge (ange) deshante (descendre)
De let pai (la part) de not Cheignou (Seigneur).
With respect to place-names, changes occurred in
North-Eastern Lorraine in much the same way as they
occurred in Alsace, Amidst the many vicissitudes of
220 THE TRUE STORY OF
early days such changes were bound to happen. In
Merovingian times vacant, abandoned, or confiscated
lands took the names of their new owners, to which
some such suffix as villare was often added. Yet the
Roman remains bricks, tiles, vases, medals, coins, and
so forth found on these spots tell of days long
previous to the Merovingian era. Such names as
Rambervillers, Badonviller, Gerbeviller, Gondreville,
and Remiremont come from Ramberti-villare, Bo-
donis-villare, Gerberti-villare, Gundulfi- villa, and Ro-
marici-mons. Bodon was a seventh-century Bishop
of Toul, Romaric is known to have founded the Abbey
of Remiremont about the same period. In none of
the five places I have enumerated has German ever
been the current idiom. If Rambert, Gerbert, and
the others were Franks they speedily accommodated
themselves to the vernacular of their Gallo-Roman
hinds and neighbours.
In the part of Lorraine most peopled by Germanic
folk villare was usually changed into wihr, as was often
the case also in Alsace. Other suffixes introduced by
the invaders were heim (house), dorf and troff (village),
and ingen, an equivalent of the Celtic acus. Most of
the names ending in ingen will be found in German
Lorraine, where the French in some instances after-
wards altered it to ange, as in the case of Finstingen,
Fenestrange. In one of the oldest documents respect-
ing Alsace (673) one reads of Monesensisheim and
Onenheim, names which subsequently underwent still
further Germanization, becoming Munzenheim and
Ohnenheim. Those examples indicate the kind of
process which occurred.
Christianity tended to alter many old place-names,
besides providing names for the new villages which
sprang up. A parish whose church or chapel was
ALSACE-LORRAINE 221
dedicated to some particular saint often took his
name. That of Dannemarie (altered by the Germans
to Dammerkirch) comes from Donna Maria. More-
over, sanctus (sankt, saint) gradually replaced domnus.
Briefly, in the sixth century German and Latin com-
peted for pre-eminence, the latter, however, taking in
an increasing degree the romane form.
Apart from the early irruptions, the wars of more
modern times brought many Germans into Alsace.
Some were refugees fleeing from religious struggles.
In the sixteenth century, moreover, a number of
Saxon colonists were attracted to the region by the
silver-mines of Sainte-Marie. Other miners came on
various occasions in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries both to Sainte-Marie and Sainte-Croix. At
an earlier date, however, in the vicinity of Schirmeck
there was an influx of French Switzers from Porrentruy
and Delemont.
There are considerable differences between the
Germanic dialects of Alsace. In the Sundgau the
vernacular is akin to the German of the neighbouring
parts of Switzerland. In the north the idiom
resembles that of the Palatinate. The people of
Colmar speak differently from those of Strasburg.
In fact different pronunciations will be found in
neighbouring communes, and corrupt w r ords derived
from French are of frequent occurrence. Before
the annexation of 1871 the dialects of some dis-
tricts were almost incomprehensible to the Badeners
dwelling just across the Rhine. Now and again,
by fits and starts, the Government of the old regime
wished to impose the French language on the people,
but it never did anything to encourage a knowledge
of it. Pfister declares that not a word of French was
taught in the schools of Alsace and the Germanic part
222 THE TRUE STORY OF
of Lorraine until the Revolution of 1789. The chil-
dren, says he, did not even learn to use Roman
letters when writing. In the signatures which figure
in the old registers, German Gothic is invariably
employed. The knowledge of French was long con-
fined to the upper classes and to the townsfolk of
the middle class. They did not acquire it, however,
at the University of Strasburg, for all the teaching
there was in Latin. They picked it up chiefly by
journeys through France, sojourns in Paris, or inter-
course with French functionaries and military folk.
At the time of the Revolution the National Conven-
tion was desirous of remedying this state of affairs,
and even voted a credit of 600,000 francs to that
effect. But the wars, the disorderly state of the
country, the general unrest, prevented the realization
of such a project, and it was only at the time of
Lezay-Marnezia's prefectship,* and again during
Louis Philippe's reign that the Alsatian schools under-
went real improvements.
Since 1871 the German rulers have done their
utmost to extirpate the French language. They
speedily made their own speech obligatory for all
public bodies. In 1888 they imposed it on the petty
law-courts of the so-called Welsch districts. They
even forbade parents to give French Christian names
to their children. Rene* had been a very popular
name in the annexed part of Lorraine it recalled the
duke who defeated Charles the Rash of Burgundy
but the Germans would not suffer its bestowal on
any infant. Some little trouble ensued, but finally
the Latin form Renatus was accepted.
Not a word of French has been taught in the
elementary schools of Alsace since the annexation.
* See p. 119, ante.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 223
In that connexion I remember the refrain of a song,
supposed to be sung by an old Alsatian schoolmaster :
La patrouille allemande passe,
Baissez la voix, me8 chers petits,
Parler fractals n'est pins permis
Aux petits enfants de 1'Alsace !
Even the use of such words as merci, bonjour, and
mademoiselle (when addressing a school-teacher) was
forbidden the village children. In the secondary
schools a little French was allowed, but the hours
given to its study were as far as possible curtailed.
The efforts to banish the French language were
particularly great in the Welsch districts, notably
those of Lorraine such as Chateau-Salins, whose
French race was subjected to the most odious Ger-
manization. Metz, moreover, was largely transformed
by the influx of thousands of Teutons, who imposed
their guttural speech upon its population.
Although ethnology and language help one to
determine nationality, they can only be relied upon
within reasonable limits. Let nobody imagine that
identity of idiom necessarily implies identity of
opinions, sentiments, or aspirations. Not only among
the so-called Welsch of Alsace, but also among the
Germanic section of the people, the neighbouring
Germans were always unpopular. They were con-
temptuously designated as Schwabs, and there were
many Alsatian legends and tales turning them to
ridicule. One may well ask, also, what distinguished
men were ever given by Alsace-Lorraine to Germany.
At long intervals in the old days a soldier, a scholar
of some degree of eminence, arose, to whom Germany
might lay claim, though the former was usually a
mere soldier of fortune ready to serve the master who
paid him best, and the latter, a writer who did not
224 THE TRUE STORY OF
pen his treatises in a tongue suitable for horses as, I
think, Francis I once put it but in Latin, the then
universal language of the learned. On the other
hand the distinguished men given by Alsace and
Lorraine to France have been strikingly numerous. I
have mentioned several in the course of these pages.
It would take me too long to compile a complete list,
and I should not have sufficient space to include it in
this volume, but here is a partial one jotted down
au co-want de la plume :
Soldiers Marshals and Generals : Fabert, Ney, Victor, Custines, Oudinot,
Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, Gerard, Kellermann, Kleber, Lefebvre, Lobau, Molitor,
Duroc, Lasalle, Rapp, Drouot, Scherer, Thi6bault, Chevert, Schramm,
Exelmans, Richepanse, Uhrich, Paixhans, Sigisbert Hugo,* Margueritte,
Poncelet, De Reiset, Virgile Schneider, Haxo, Jacqueminot, Houchard,
Lallemand, Courtot, Eble, D'Andlau, Athalin, Vescot, Barbier, Bechot,
Braun, Conrad, Denzel, Gelb, Klinger, Kloecker, Menjaud, Reibell, De
Reinach, Span*, Scherb, Wehrle, Freytag, Scholt, several Berckheims,
Dettlingens, Montjoyes, Rosens, Wurmsers,t and Waldners. Also the Gayets,
intendants giniraux des armees, Morel and the Lorentzes, father and son,
chirurgiens en chef des armies, and Wolf Wagner, the daring guerilla-leader in
the Vosges in 1814. A hundred others might be added to the foregoing.
The names of two admirals also occur to me : Bruat, who commanded in
the Black Sea during the Crimean War, and De Rigny, who commanded the
French squadron at Navarino.
Statesmen, diplomatists, politicians, high functionaries, etc. : Jules Ferry,
Raymond Poincare, President of the Republic, Baron Louis, the Gerards,
the Dietrichs, Bouchotte, Count Roederer, Marbois, Merlin de Thionville,
Boulay de la Meurthe, Thouvenel, Buffet, Eugene Schneider, Kiiss, some of
the Montjoyes and Rosens, Schirmer, Keller, the Koechlins, Scheurer-Kestner,
Marechal, Edmond Valentin, Schneegans, Ketle, Bamberger, Humbert,
Grosjean, and many others.
Ecclesiastics : Cardinal Mathieu, Cardinal Louis (not Edouard) de Rohan,
De Lenoncourt (Bishop of Metz),J Gobel (the " constitutional " Bishop of
Paris), Pastor Oberlin the philanthropist, Abbe Gregoire, Abb6 Wetterle,
etc.
Scientists: Jules-Henri, Leon and Lucien Poincare, Bartholdi, Barral,
Crevaux, Pilatre de Rozier, Maurice Levy, Mathieu de Dombasle, Pariset,
* His son Victor Hugo was born at Besan9on, but the family belonged
to the Xanthois district of Lorraine, between Remiremont and Pont-Saint-
Victor.
f Apart from the one, a native of Strasburg, who entered the Austrian
service and was defeated by Napoleon at Castiglione.
J He promoted the union of Metz with France in 1552.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 225
Sonnini, several Dollfuses, etc. Pasteur was at one time prominently connected
with the University of Strasburg.
Writers and Scholars : J. Le Duchat, the brothers Lacretelle, Saint-
Lambert, Gilbert, Grimoard, Arbois de Jurainville, Xavier Marmier, Edmond
About, Andr6 Theuriet, Erckmann-Chatrian, Maimbourg, F. B. Hoffmann,
J. J. Oberlin, Jean Mace, P. J. Stahl, J. J. Weiss, Scherer, Nefftzer, Siebecker,
Chevalier de Boufflers, J. G. Eckhard, the Engelhardts, Jung, Renouard de
Bussiere, Andrieu, Arnold, the Pfisters, Maurice Barres, Louis Ratisbonne,
Paul Verlaine, Ardouin-Dumazet, Buchoz, the Ancillons, Alfred Mezieres,
Pixerecourt, Eugene de Mirecourt, Mme. de Graffigny, Mme. Aimable Tastu,
etc. Edmond de Goncourt, moreover, was born at Nancy.
Artists, including painters, sculptors, engravers, musicians, etc. : Claude
Lorrain, Clodion, Ligier-Richier, Jacques Callot, Sebastien Leclerc, Baron
Gerard,* Isabey, Bastien-Lepage, Henner, the Drouins, Bartholdi, the Drol-
lings, Jean Lamour, Leprince, Adolphe Yvon, the four Guerins, Gustave Dore,
Nocret, Theodore Jung, Sigisbert Adam, Chassel, the Dietterlins, Corti,
Bugard, Henriet, the Levraults, Bauer, Spierre, F. Dauphin, Jundt, Grand-
ville, Hansi, Legrand, Jacquot, Marechal, Ambroise Thomas, Monvel and
his daughter Mile. Mars, Mme. Arnould-Plessy, etc.
Although those lists are very rough and imperfect
they will at least give some idea of what Alsace and
Lorraine have contributed to France's fame and
culture. Some of the old Lorrainer dukes, sprung
from the House of France, were able as well as valiant
princes. The Guises, who, whatever their policy may
have been, were remarkable scions of the ducal line,
belong essentially to French history. Many of the
other nobility whom I have not mentioned were men
of distinction, sometimes of high merit. The four
grands chevaux of Lorraine the Haraucourts, the
Lenoncourts, the Du Chatelets, and the Lignevilles
(the last-named house alone now existing) were not
merely grands seigneurs, but often also skilful captains
and expert counsellors. The same may be said of
the so-called petite chevaux, among whom, besides
Bassompierre and the Haussonvilles, whom I have
mentioned, there were some of the Choiseuls, the
Hunolsteins, the Lambertyes, the Oberkirchs, the
* Though born at Rome he was a Lorrainer. A similar remark applies
to others in the above lists. Blood comes before birthplace.
P
226 THE TRUE STORY OF
Nettancourts, the Beau vans and the Rougemonts.
Men eminent in industry were numerous in both
provinces. The artisans were often famed for their
work, and one and all, whatever their station or
calling, have constituted an essential part of the
great heritage of France, in which Germany can
claim no share.
As I have said before, both Lorrainers and Alsatians
long loved their independence. But when, situated
as they were between two strong Powers, it became a
question of uniting themselves with one or the other,
they preferred France to Germany. Certainly the old
Bourbon regime was a bad one, but in common with
all the rest of France for it was the same throughout
the country Alsace and Lorraine endured it without
seeking separation. When the great Revolution came
and brought invasion in its train, none were more
eager to throw back the aggressors from across the
Rhine. The " lost brothers," as the Germans called
them, were by no means anxious to join their reputed
kindred. As I shall show in my next chapter the
provinces were of precisely the same mind in 1870-71,
and a cry of grief and protest went up when the evil
day of annexation dawned. The majority were con-
strained by circumstances to remain and become
German subjects, but thousands fled and have been
fleeing ever since, as I shall presently establish.
Never, indeed, has there been a cessation of the
exodus to escape the odious Prussian rule. Even the
storks, those familiars of the old Alsatian villages,
come thither, it is said, in far smaller numbers than
they used to do. It was held in the long ago that
these birds would only dwell in lands of freedom. At
all events those which come to Alsace in the fair
season nowadays, seem to distinguish between the
ALSACE-LORRAINE 227
genuine old inhabitants and the many settlers imported
from across the Rhine and planted throughout the
province. One might think these feathered visitors
possessed of sufficient sagacity to discriminate between
liberty's friends and her open or covert enemies.
VIII
THE WAR OF 1870-71
A Glance at the Causes of the Struggle : The first French Defeats
Wissembourg, Worth, Forbach : The Occupation of Nancy : The
Battles near Metz : The March on Sedan : General Pajol and Napo-
leon III : The Siege of Strasburg : Edmond Valentin's remarkable
Adventures : German Exactions at Strasburg : The Sieges of Phals-
bourg, Schlestadt, Neuf-Brisach, Verdun, Metz, Longwy, Bitche, and
Belfort : German Excesses and Oppression in Alsace-Lorraine : The
Preliminaries of Peace : Protests of Alsace-Lorraine.
IN former books of mine I discussed the causes of the
war which broke out between France and Germany in
1870 * ; and desiring in the present volume to confine
myself as much as possible to Alsace and Lorraine, I
do not propose to deal with general matters at any
length. The reader may be reminded, however, that
both Bismarck and Napoleon III were bent upon
war. The former, who already contemplated the
creation of a new German Empire for Prussia's benefit,
realized that this would only be possible if the power
of France were diminished, and the better to effect
that purpose he resolved from the very outset to
deprive the French of their strip of frontier on the
Rhine by annexing the province of Alsace. The
seizure of a part of Lorraine was an after-thought
inspired by the great successes of the German armies.
In September 1870, after Sedan, but whilst Bazaine
was still holding out at Metz, Bismarck told Jules
Favre, the Foreign Minister of the National Defence,
* See " The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870 " ; " My Days of Adventure :
the Fall of Prance, 1870-71 " ; and " Republican France, 1870-1912."
ALSACE-LORRAINE 229
that the price of peace at that moment would be Alsace
and an indemnity of two milliards of francs, but that
if the war were prolonged he should also demand a
part of Lorraine and a much larger indemnity. Little
if anything was said about Lorraine at the outset of
the war, but the question of annexing Alsace at once
came to the front in Germany. As I have previously
stated, geographers and others had prepared the way
for such a demand, but, curiously enough, though the
Prussian Press supported it, far more eagerness on the
subject was displayed in Southern Germany Baden,
Wurttemberg and Bavaria where quite a clamour
arose in favour of annexation.
I have said that Napoleon III was, like Bismarck,
bent on war. Elsew r here 1 have explained that
dynastic considerations in view of the Republican
propaganda carried on in France, resentment on
account of the diplomatic victories which Bismarck
had gained over him, and, quite reasonably, appre-
hension inspired by the excessive aggrandizement of
Prussia, conjointly inclined the Emperor to commit
his fortunes to the arbitrament of the sword. His
home policy had been ratified by a plebiscitum not
long previously, and his secret correspondence with
certain German princes and statesmen since the war
of 1866, which had so largely modified the German
map, led him to think that although Baden might
support Prussia, neither Bavaria, nor Wurttemberg,
nor Hesse would do so. Saxony, moreover, might
well be on his side. The correspondence on which
Napoleon based those hopes was discovered at the
chateau of Ceray* during the war, and utilized by
Bismarck to compel the implicated governments to
* The country residence of Eugene Rouher, the statesman whom the
Emperor most trusted.
230 THE TRUE STORY OF
assent to the foundation of an empire for Prussia's
benefit. But Napoleon also relied on the support of
Austria and Italy. The former had absolutely
entered into a covenant with him, but she was not
ready, and it was arranged that the war should only
take place in 1871. Some Hungarian politicians
betrayed everything to Bismarck, who, resolving that
he would not wait for Napoleon's convenience, forced
his hand by means of the Hohenzollern candidature
to the Spanish throne. Thus events were precipitated.
Forgery and the suppression of facts brought Bavaria
and Wiirttemberg to the side of Prussia, the offer of
papal Rome to Italy prevented her intervention,
Austria with the Hungarians supporting the Prussian
cause could do nothing, and so, in July 1870, came
the war which Napoleon and the Archduke Albert
had planned for the ensuing spring.
There were undoubtedly moments when the Em-
peror felt that he was entering upon a very hazardous
course, but he was largely influenced by a military
coterie which, whilst full of patriotism, was deplorably
ignorant of the deficiencies of the French army, and
the superiority in many respects of its destined
antagonists. The country generally did not desire
war. This is shown by the large number of telegrams
in which prefects and other provincial functionaries
gave expression to the hopes and opinions of the
people inhabiting their respective departments. A
strong desire for the preservation of peace was ex-
pressed in almost every instance, but, as I indicated
in the first chapter of this volume, Bismarck so
managed affairs that only by absolute subservience
to Prussia could France have avoided the great
struggle.
Napoleon assumed the command of his armies,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 231
and main head-quarters being established at Metz, he
arrived there on July 27. Six days later there was a
little engagement at Saarbriicken, where the Prussians
were attacked by some of the troops commanded by
General Frossard, who had previously been governor
to the young Imperial Prince. It was at the Saar-
briicken affair that this lad received the so-called
Baptism of Fire. Next, the Prussian Army com-
manded by the Crown Prince (afterwards Emperor)
Frederick crossed the Lauter, and on August 4 General
Abel Douay, who had some 9000 men with him, was
surprised at Wissembourg by two Prussian Army
Corps and a large Bavarian contingent. Douay's
Turcos put up a gallant fight, but were hopelessly
outnumbered. Douay himself was killed in the en-
gagement, and Pelle, who commanded the Turcos,
took his place, and placing the colours in the centre
of his column succeeded in retreating in good order
upon Soultz. The French had suffered severe losses,
but they left only one gun in the enemy's hands. It
appears that the sub-prefect of Wissembourg sent a
warning to Marshal MacMahon at the very outset of
the affair, but it was impossible to dispatch assistance
to Douay in time to prevent a defeat.
Two days later, the 6th, MacMahon himself was
attacked by the victorious Prussians, whom he had not
expected to encounter before August 8. He had
requested that an army corps under the orders of
General de Failly, a former aide-de-camp of the
Emperor's, might be placed at his disposal, and he
expected its arrival. It has been stated that de
Failly was instructed to move on Lembach near Worth,
but by some mistake went towards Lemberg near
Bitche. On the day of the battle he certainly was near
Bitche, but no attempt was made to telegraph to him
232 THE TRUE STORY O;F
there, and only by a chance telegram sent by a railway
stationmaster did he learn, too late, of the desperate
straits in which the Marshal found himself. One of
de Failly's divisions (commanded by Guyot de Lespart)
reached Niederbronn merely in time to assist in
covering to some extent the retreat of MacMahon's
forces. That was after the valiant but unavailing
charge of the Cuirassiers at Morsbronn. The enemy
paid a stiff price for his victory, losing 489 officers and
over 10,000 men in killed and wounded, the losses
of the French, who were grievously outnumbered,
amounting to about 6000. Unfortunately, in the
debacle with which the battle ended, the Germans took
9000 prisoners. Some 2500 fugitives of the 5th
Corps made their way to Bitche, others threw them-
selves into Phalsbourg, whilst others managed to reach
Strasburg. Among the last was a detachment of
naval men under Rear- Admiral Exelmans and Captain
Dupetit-Thouars. At a later period of the war the
navy contributed many officers and men to the French
armies, but the contingent under Exelmans had been
provided in view of the contemplated passage of the
Rhine by MacMahon's forces.
On the day of the Marshal's unfortunate reverse
Frossard's troops also were defeated at Forbach.
Bazaine was then at Metz or in its vicinity with the
bulk of the French army, but in vain did Frossard
telegraph to him for help. Not a man was dispatched.
It must be said that great jealousy prevailed among
some of the French commanders of the time. When,
directly war was declared, Generals de Failly and
Frossard received important commands, it was com-
monly said that they owed their appointments solely
to the fact that they were favourites of the Emperor,
and in order that each might have an opportunity to
ALSACE-LORRAINE 233
win the baton of a Marshal of France. De Failly was
undoubtedly a better courtier than commander, but
Frossard was really possessed of military ability.
Bazaine, however, arrogant, churlish, and grasping,
was never inclined to propitiate the fortunes of others.
" Let him win his baton himself ! " he growled when
he received Frossard's entreaty for assistance.
The Germans pressed onward. They occupied
Forbach, Haguenau, Sarreguemines, and Saint- Avoid.
There was extreme agitation in Paris. The Republi-
can party demanded that the Emperor should surren-
der the chief command to Bazaine, in whom, despite
his Mexican record, they foolishly placed their trust.
Napoleon had to give way and Bazaine assumed sole
control of the so-called Army of the Rhine. But
matters went from bad to worse. On August 9
Phalsbourg was invested and the little fort of La
Petite-Pierre, now called Lutzelstein, evacuated. On
the 10th the Germans gathered round Strasburg, and
two days later the enemy entered Nancy, which apart
from its virtually untrained National Guards had no
garrison or means of resistance at its disposal. Much
was made of this incident at the time. The capital
of Lorraine had surrendered to six Uhlans, it was said.
It is true that a few of the Prussian scouting cavalry
rode into the town to inspect it, but this happened
after the municipality, left defenceless by the military
authorities, had agreed to surrender to a large force
in the immediate neighbourhood. Such odium as
attached to this unfortunate episode should have
fallen by rights on the army leaders and not on the
unlucky inhabitants. The National Guards were
quite ready to do their duty, but Nancy, then abso-
lutely an open town, was not given a chance to prove
her mettle.
234 THE TRUE STORY OF
At this time the Bavarian forces were streaming
through the undefended passes of the Vosges. Mac-
Mahon had fallen back on Chalons, where the rem-
nants of the troops which had fought under him at
Worth were reinforced, partly by regulars but also
partly by raw Mobile Guards on whom little reliance
could be placed. Meanwhile, a great struggle began
in the vicinity of Metz. On August 14, 16, and 18
were fought the desperate battles on which the respec-
tive combatants bestowed the diverse names of
Borny, Courcelles, Panges, Vionville, Mars-la-Tour,
Gravelotte, Rezonville, and Saint-Privat. In this
series of memorable engagements the French, under
the supreme command of Bazaine, were opposed both
by the army of the Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia
and that of his cousin Prince Frederick Charles.
There was much stubborn fighting with heavy losses
on both sides, and French and Germans alike must
be credited with many deeds of great gallantry. But
Bazaine was either a much less competent man than
was generally supposed, or else was wilfully foolish
and jealous of certain commanders under him.
As I wrote in " Republican France," " he was
largely responsible for the French failure at Rezonville
(otherwise Gravelotte) when he retreated before
inferior forces at a moment when he might have
crushed them a decisive blunder which influenced
the whole of the war. Again, at Saint-Privat he
abandoned Marshal Canrobert and the 6th Army Corps
to the 300 guns and 100,000 rifles of the Germans,
when, at a word from him, the whole French Imperial
Guard, with ten regiments of cavalry and a powerful
artillery force, might have hastened to Canrobert 's
support and modified the issue of the battle." In
the result Bazaine's army was driven back under
ALSACE-LORRAINE 235
Metz, and the siege of that stronghold then virtually
began.
At a council held at Chalons, where Napoleon III
now found himself with MacMahon, it was at first
decided to retreat on Paris and cover the capital, but
General Count de Palikao, Minister of War, telegraphed
that if Bazaine were abandoned a Revolution would
break out in Paris. Thereupon it was resolved to try
to join Bazaine's army by going at first northward
and then descending upon Metz from that direction.
Thus began the memorable march which terminated
at Sedan. I have been perusing recently a rare
pamphlet which is a reprint of a letter addressed in
July 1871 to the "Moniteur Universel" by General
Count Pajol, who was senior aide-de-camp to Napoleon
at the time of the Sedan disaster.* A strictly honour-
able man, evincing no extreme partisan feelings,
Pajol states in this letter that the Emperor was in no
wise responsible for the march on Sedan. He did not
in any degree weigh on MacMahon' s plans, he took no
initiative and offered no opposition to any of the
movements of the army, although (so Pajol had reason
to believe) he did not approve of all of them. Having
surrendered the chief command, however, he remained
merely a spectator of what ensued until, by his orders,
the white flag was at last hoisted at Sedan. He had
nothing whatever to do, says Pajol, " with the strate-
gical dispositions which took the army to Mouzon and
from Mouzon to Sedan. . . . The Marshal (Mac-
Mahon) was free to move whither he chose. The
Emperor was fatally included in the shipwreck of our
* " Lettre de M. le General Pajol sur la Bataille et la Capitulation de
Sedan," Paris, Typographic A. Pougin, 1871. The general was the son of
General Claude Pajol, who contributed powerfully to the success of the
French at Montereau in February 1814 the last but not the least of the
many victories achieved by the genius of Napoleon I.
236 THE TRUE STORY OF
army and all he could do was to try to save the crew
of the vessel whose captain he no longer was. This he
did by giving orders at three o'clock (Sedan, Sep-
tember 1) to hoist the white flag. Half an hour later
it would have been hoisted by the order of one or
another general, but meanwhile thousands more of
our soldiers would have been killed." The position
was, indeed, a hopeless one at that moment.
Pajol pays a tribute to the Emperor's courage.
He rode about the field of battle exposed during five
hours to a cross-fire of shot and shell. After General de
Courson and Captain deTrecesson had been wounded
near him he ordered most of his escort to take cover and
was then attended only by Pajol, equerry Davilliers,
Dr. Baron Corvisart, and Captain d'Heudicourt, an
orderly who was unfortunately killed. I mention those
facts because it would be a great mistake to imagine
that Napoleon III was a coward. Moreover, whilst im-
puting to him much responsibility for the war, I quite
agree that he was not responsible for the fatal march
which ended so disastrously. That desperate step
was inspired by the Council of Regency in Paris
dominated by fear of a Revolution.
There are two other matters which I may mention
here one, to which I referred in my first chapter, is
that the French might have saved themselves had
they chosen to violate Belgian neutrality. However,
neither MacMahon nor Ducrot nor Wimpffen (who
in turn succeeded the Marshal after he had been
wounded) was willing to do so. The second point is
that the French were caught and cornered at Sedan by
the much superior marching powers of the Germans,
who in order to intercept their antagonists had to
cover a longer distance in shorter time.. In those
days, be it noted, the French infantry wore no socks,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 237
and their boots, generally inferior to those of the Ger-
mans, were often absolutely vile. If an infantryman
is to give of his best, care must be taken of his feet, and
he must be well and comfortably shod.
On September 4, three days after the disaster of
Sedan, Paris overthrew the imperial regime, and the
provinces followed the capital's example. It had
become virtually impossible to relieve Bazaine, who
was invested around Metz by the army of Prince
Frederick Charles, whilst that of the Prussian Crown
Prince, victorious at Sedan, marched towards Paris,
which was soon to be besieged. Besides Metz several
other strong places of Alsace-Lorraine were now
beleaguered. I have already mentioned that the
Germans gathered around Strasburg on August 10.
Before the war the troops there had been commanded
for a considerable time by General Ducrot, who
repeatedly sent important warnings to the Tuileries
respecting German military affairs, and who afterwards
played a conspicuous part in the defence of Paris.
At Strasburg he had been succeeded by General
Alexis Uhrich, a native of Phalsbourg and in 1870
sixty-eight years of age. The forces at Uhrich's dis-
posal consisted of 6000 infantry, partly fugitives from
Worth, 600 artillerymen, 100 naval men, a few batta-
lions of the Mobile Guard, and about 7000 National
Guards provided by the town itself. There were no
engineers at all. The total number of the defenders
was roughly about 20,000. At first the besieging,
army was limited to a force of Badeners commanded
by the Grand Duchy's War Minister, General von
Beyer. He fell ill, however, and was replaced by
General von Werder, who had a very large body of
troops under him, including 2200 engineers and 7000
artillerymen, with about 250 guns.
238 THE TRUE STORY OF
The Germans marched on the city to the strains
of a song specially composed for the occasion, and
beginning :
Strasburg, Strasburg, most beauteous city,
Where there are so many soldiers,
And where, as thou canst scarce remember,
My glory and my pride have been imprisoned
For more than a hundred years !
Yes, daughter of my heart, for more than a century
Hast thou wasted away in the arms of a Welsch brigand !
But soon shall thy grief take end !
Strasburg, Strasburg, city of my heart,
Awake from thy dismal dreams !
Thou shalt be saved, the hour has sounded,
Thy brothers haste to thee in crowds !
We shall soon see what treatment these loving
brothers reserved for the city of their hearts.
On August 13 Uhrich made an ineffectual attempt
to prevent the investment. That same day the first
shell was fired at the town and fell on a house in the
part known as the Marais Vert. On the morrow
Werder arrived, and established his head-quarters at
Mundolsheim. Under him were Decker, commanding
the artillery, and Mertens, commanding the engineers.
The last named had directed the operations against
the Danish entrenchments of Diippel in the Schleswig-
Holstein war.* His presence before Strasburg indi-
cated the importance which was attached to the
taking of the city, which Bismarck, by the way, called
" the key of the house."
The actual bombardment began on August 15,
the feast of the Assumption and also the " Fete Na-
poleon," whilst Uhrich and others, officers and func-
tionaries, were attending high mass at the cathedral.
* Had we only combined with France to support Denmark in 1864 Prussia
would never have possessed the Kiel Canal, which was originally a Danish
scheme. We are paying a heavy price for the sad folly of our Mid* Victorian
policy. Verily, th sins of the fathers are visited upon the children,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 239
On the night of the 19th the enemy's cannonade
became more violent, and on the morrow Uhrich
responded by bombarding Kehl across the Rhine.
This the Germans stationed at Kehl impudently de-
nounced as a crime, the town being an open one.
However, Uhrich's cannonade did comparatively little
damage, the inferiority of his guns to those possessed
by the Germans being manifest. On August 24 the
enemy's bombardment became terrific and that day,
the anniversary of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew,
the city's precious library was set on fire. A younger
generation has expressed its horror at the destruction
of the library of Louvain, to which some writers have
referred as though there had been nothing in history
like it since the loss of the famous Alexandrian library.
But although there were no submarines, nor aircraft,
nor poisonous gases in 1870-71, the methods of the
Germans in respect to other matters were precisely
such as one has witnessed in recent times.
Forty-seven years ago British people, not being
directly affected, refused, for the most part, to believe
in the many reports of German atrocities in France,
and afterwards took the Germans to their hearts and
allowed them the free run of our country. But
survivors of the Annee terrible, those who were then
in France, myself included, can bear solemn testimony
that there then occurred deeds every whit as foul as
any that have disgraced the German name since 1914.
To me the wonder has always been that our people
should so long and so grossly have misunderstood the
German character. It is false to say that Prussianism
has been the growth of more recent years. It was
already rampant under the present Kaiser's " illus-
trious grandfather," who bequeathed it to his descen-
dants. It was not then, perhaps, quite so widespread
240 THE TRUE STORY OF
throughout Germany as it is to-day, but where it
existed it was quite as unscrupulous, quite as contemp-
tuous of every common principle of humanity. Yet
to this did our nation long close its eyes !
The Strasburg library contained 150,000 books
and 1539 manuscripts, among which were many
Greek ones of the greatest value. There was also the
Abbess of Saint-Odile's " Hortus Deliciarum," written
in 1180 and embellished with Byzantine designs ; there
was a Carlovingian missal with silver lettering on
purple parchment ; there was the missal of Louis XII
of France; there was a collection of the Canonical
Laws of 788, another of the ancient laws and regula-
tions of Strasburg, a great number of documents
relating to Gutenberg, his lawsuits, and the early
period of the art of printing, together with very many
choice incunabula. All perished in the flames, and
when Werder a somewhat singular character who
combined the hypocrisy of a pietist w r ith the affectation
of a coxcomb heard of it, his only reply was : " The
ruin of Strasburg lies on her own head ! Why did she
not surrender ? As for those books, why were they
not removed to cellars ? "
At the same time as the library was destroyed, the
so-called Aublette building, occupying one side of the
Place Kleber and containing the Museum of Paintings,
was set on fire. No attempt to extinguish the flames
was possible. From eight o'clock in the evening
until eight the following morning, projectiles rained
upon the devoted city, the enemy largely concentrat-
ing his fire upon the conflagrations he had kindled.
On the following night the cathedral was bombarded,
and set on fire by means of incendiary shells, the roof
being perforated and the leaping flames licking and
damaging the lofty tower. Four of the finest old
ALSACE-LORRAINE 241
mansions of the city were at the same time reduced to
ruins, and even the hospital was shelled.
On August 27 Uhrich contrived to send a messenger
to the Minister of War in Paris to say that Strasburg
was doomed unless assistance could be sent. No help
was possible, however, At night on the 29th the
enemy opened his first parallel. On September 1 the
garrison essayed a sortie and inflicted somewhat severe
losses on the Germans. But the bombardment con-
tinued unabated, again and again igniting fresh con-
flagrations and battering and shattering the stone
ornaments of the unfortunate cathedral. The enemy's
second parallel was opened on September 6, and his
third on the night of the llth. At this moment the
International Red Cross Society of Geneva sent some
delegates to the German general asking him, in the
name of humanity, to allow children, women, and aged
men to leave the city. He replied that women,
children, and old folk constituted an element of weak-
ness among the defenders of a besieged place, and that
he would suffer none to depart. At last, however,
after repeated requests he authorized the departure
of 800 persons, the town then containing, with its
garrison, 82,000 !
News of the fall of the Empire had reached Stras-
burg, and the Imperial Prefect, Baron Pron, had been
deposed. Kiiss, the energetic and popular Mayor,
did his utmost to succour the unfortunate townsfolk,
repeatedly risking his life whilst going on his many
errands of mercy. On September 20, and under very
dramatic circumstances, a new official appeared upon
the scene, this being Edmond Valentin, whom the
National Defence Government had appointed Prefect
in the place of Baron Pron. Son of a hospital inspec-
tor and born at Strasburg in 1823, Valentin had origi-
242 THE TRUE STORY OF
nally been an officer in the foot Chasseurs, or light
infantry, and had become a deputy at the time of the
Second Republic. When war broke out in 1870 he was
acting as a professor at the Royal Military Academy of
Woolwich. His services were declined by the Im-
perial Government but the National Defence at once
accepted them, whereupon, starting for Strasburg, he
managed to penetrate the enemy's lines at Barr on
September 8. Failing to get through the advanced
posts he made for the Rhone and Rhine Canal, but
was arrested on the 10th by a German reconnoitring
party, who kept him a prisoner for fifteen hours. He
was released, however, as an American passport had
been provided him, and his knowledge of our language
enabled him to pass himself off as a citizen of the
U.S.A. At last he got to Marten in front of Strasburg
citadel, and was about to swim the canal when a
German settler denounced him as a " suspect " and he
was again arrested and carried to Kehl. On being
released he was ordered to quit the zone of operations
within twelve hours, and thereupon followed the Rhine
as far as Maximilianau, whence, by way of Landau,
he contrived to reach Wissembourg.
Some of his Alsatian compatriots befriended him,
and having been suitably disguised he again repaired
to the German lines. He spent two days at Schillig-
heim (called by the Alsatians Schillick) a village close
to Strasburg, and was there hidden by friends in the
very house where Werder and his staff took their
meals. Though fellow-Alsatians often recognized
Valentin none betrayed him, but on the contrary they
all endeavoured to assist him in his enterprise. At
last, on the evening of September 19, he hid himself
between two German batteries, and crawled on his
hands and knees through sundry maize and potato
ALSACE-LORRAINE 243
fields until at the expiration of three-quarters of an
hour he reached the bank of the Aar. There he was
observed both by the besiegers and the besieged, who
both opened fire upon him. He plunged into the
water, but on reaching a swamp was forced to go back
and swim again until he came to a damaged covered
way. Several times he fell into craters caused by the
bombardment, but he eventually reached the moat of
Lunette 57, where for half an hour he tried to attract
the notice of some sentinel. He could see nobody,
however, and, although his teeth were chattering with
the cold, he again took to the water until perceiving
some men on the rampart he called to them des-
perately : " France ! France ! ' !
Half a dozen shots replied to him, but a corporal
of the 78th of the Line, named Fauchard, seeing that
he was alone, stopped the firing and took him prisoner.
He asked to be conducted to Uhrich, but it was too
late to do so and he was therefore shut up for the night
in a pavilion in the Lippsgarten. In the morning,
at six o'clock, he was brought before the Commander,
to whom he at once made himself known, taking from
his sleeve, in which it had been sewn, the decree,
signed by Gambetta, appointing him Prefect of the
department. Unfortunately Valentin's heroism and
devotion were of no avail. Eight days later Stras-
burg capitulated, and the Germans outrageously
punished him for his alleged impudence in daring to
pass through their lines.
On September 10 the bombardment had fired and
destroyed the theatre of Strasburg. By the 26th
several of the advanced works were in the enemy's
possession, there were two breaches in the bastions,
and virtually every building on the west side of the
town was in ruins. Under these circumstances a
244 THE TRUE STORY OF
Council of War was held on the 27th, and decided that
everything had been done that military honour
demanded, and that although the enemy had not yet
attempted an assault, it was necessary to surrender.
The Germans insisted that the rank and file except-
ing the National Guards, who were merely to be
disarmed should be prisoners of war, but offered to
allow Uhrich and the other officers to retire into
France on condition that they would not serve again
during the war. Seventy-five officers preferred, how-
ever, to share the captivity of their men. The roll
of the capitulation includes 451 officers, 17,111 men
(including the National Guards), plus 2100 sick and
wounded, 1843 horses, and 1070 pieces of artillery,
most of which were quite obsolete. There were also
stores of munitions, clothing, and camping matiriel,
and the Germans also appropriated over 400,000
found at the local branch of the Bank of France as
well as a quantity of silver at the Mint, with which
they struck one-franc, tw T o-franc, and five-franc pieces
stamped with the effigy of the ex-sovereign Napoleon
III ! Yet even this was not sufficient for German
greed. The city was fined for its resistance, every
householder whose home had not been destroyed
having to pay a sum of money averaging about 30 a
head ! One reason given for this abominable pro-
ceeding was the municipality's staunch refusal to
send an address of congratulation to the King of
Prussia on the success of his valiant troops !
The Germans greeted the hoisting of the white
flag with loud hurrahs. Their dear lost brothers
were delivered ! Poor lost brothers, bombed,
slaughtered, and despoiled ! Werder exhibited his
piety by going in state first to offer up a thanksgiving
at the Catholic cathedral and then another at the
ALSACE-LORRAINE 245
Protestant church of Saint Thomas. Meanwhile,
Edmond Valentin was arrested and carried off to the
fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, where he remained in close
durance until the conclusion of peace. Before that
occurred every adult inhabitant of Strasburg was
fined 1 for daring to elect to the French National
Assembly deputies opposed to the cession of Alsace to
Germany.
In 1872 a French Court of Inquiry presided over
by old Marshal Baragney d'Hilliers reported un-
favourably on Uhrich's defence and capitulation.
The chief grounds for the court's censure were
dereliction of duty in failing to improve the for-
tifications by means of stockades for which there
was ample material, in proposing surrender to the
Council of Defence, in capitulating before assault had
taken place, in omitting to burn the regimental
colours, spike the guns, and destroy the munitions,
in not asking for the honours of war and permission
for the officers to retain their swords, and the rank and
file their private effects. Uhrich was also blamed for
giving his parole and allowing his officers to give
theirs. That judgment was in accordance with the
French Army Regulations, but some may consider it
unduly severe. The town had stood a siege and bom-
bardment of more than forty days. The inhabitants
had endured great sufferings. Some 8000 of them
were without shelter, hundreds of houses having been
destroyed. Further, 300 civilians had been killed and
1700 injured by the bombardment. Including the
military, the total number of deaths was 961, and of
injuries and cases of severe illness, 3800. A fairly
impartial German writer of the time, Colonel Borb-
staedt, held that the defence was not brilliant, for it
was deficient in initiative ; but he considered that
246 THE TRUE STORY OF
surrender without waiting for assault was justified
owing to the great numerical superiority of the
German forces, and the absolute impossibility of
successfully defending at least one of the breaches
in the bastions.
Let us now glance at the defence offered by some
of the other Alsatian fortresses. Phalsbourg, having
been invested on August 9, was bombarded on the
14th, after which most of the besiegers departed,
leaving for a while only two battalions of Landwehr
near the town. The garrison was commanded by
Major Taillant and consisted of about 1900 men
(including 200 wounded), who had figured in the defeat
of Worth. There were sixty- seven guns on the
fortifications. The inhabitants were full of patriotic
ardour and did their utmost to assist the military.
The enemy having been strongly reinforced, the bom-
bardment began afresh on August 31 and a good deal
of the little town was absolutely shattered by it. In
the middle of September the cannonade became
terrific, but the garrison still made a stout resistance.
At last the siege turned into a blockade, with only
intermittent bombardment, as had been the case in
1814,* when Phalsbourg was beleaguered from January
6 to April 16. In 1870 its resistance lasted for four
months, and it then succumbed solely because not a
scrap of food remained for the garrison or the inhabi-
tants or a single shell for the defence. This birthplace
* The siege of 1814 formed the subject of Erckmann-Chatrian's story
" Le Blocus " a work which, whilst including several patriotic incidents,
was largely inspired by the author's dislike of Napoleonism and militarism.
The story is supposed to be told by an old Alsatian Jew, who, amidst his
perpetual fears, occasionally does a brave thing, and atones in some measure
for his habitual covetousness by several acts of kindness and generosity.
The commingling of patriotism and hatred of war, which these authors
displayed in so many of their stories, appears to have been largely prompted
by their antagonism to the regime of Napoleon III.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 247
of so many valiant French generals entered into no
capitulation. When Commandant Taillant found he
could hold out no longer, he spiked his guns, had
their carriages sawn into pieces, burnt his colours,
ordered every one of the 12,000 rifles in his possession
to be broken, poured water on his remaining powder,
and finally, on December 12, sent word to the German
commander that the gates of Phalsbourg were open.
Three-fourths of the town were in ruins.
The enemy came down upon Colmar towards the
middle of September. The only forces there were
some Mobile Guards belonging to Paris and Lyons,
and some local National Guards. These men put up a
gallant fight at the bridge of Horburg, but as they had
not a single piece of artillery with them they had to
fall back in the direction of the Vosges. With them
went an Alsatian heroine, Antoinette Lix, a post-
mistress, who, trained by her father, an old soldier of
Napoleon's, had fought as a man in the last great
Polish insurrection, and who, after the retreat from
Colmar, became a franc-tireur and ultimately served
with the Garibaldians. Having occupied Colmar on
September 14, the Germans descended upon Mulhouse,
which they also entered. But Schlestadt was not
disposed to surrender. It had 122 guns (none, how-
ever, rifled) and a garrison composed of half a battery
of regular artillery, four batteries of the Mobile Guard
artillery, 1200 men of that same guard, and a detach-
ment of 280 Lancers, the whole being under the orders
of Commandant de Reinach, a member of a well-known
Alsatian family. On October 10 General von Schme-
ling, who commanded the besiegers, demanded a
surrender, which was refused. The town was then
subjected to a severe bombardment, and by the 23rd
the whole of its south-western portion was in flames.
248 THE TRUE STORY OF
On the morrow Reinach was constrained by circum-
stances to capitulate. Schmeling next invested Neuf-
Brisach, where Lieut.-Colonel de Kerhor, a Breton
judging by his name, had some 5000 men, including
1000 regulars, with thirty-eight rifled guns and others.
On his refusal to surrender, the enemy bombarded him
from the vicinity of Alt-Breisach across the Rhine,
and when Kerhor retaliated by cannonading the Ger-
man town, Schmeling had the audacity to protest,
declaring that Alt-Breisach was an open town and
that, if it were again bombarded, he would render
Kerhor personally responsible for the outrage ! Ker-
hor was weak enough to act on Schmeling' s injunction,
and after the destruction of Fort Mortier, one of his
advanced works, he capitulated (November 10).
Before doing so he at least rendered his guns useless,
and effectually damped his powder.
If we leave Belfort aside for a little while, this was
the last resistance offered by a fortress in Upper
Alsace, but the Vosges were swarming with francs-
tireurs, and at Bitche in Northern or Lower Alsace,
and in various parts of Lorraine a determined struggle
still continued. The defence of Bitche, though far
less widely known than that of Belfort, was a very
gallant one. Indeed this little stronghold held out
even longer than Belfort. When General de Failly
quitted it after the battle of Worth, he left considerable
provisions behind him. The original garrison was one
of only 800 men, who were increased to 2500 by the
arrival of fugitives from Worth. The governor was
Lieut.-Colonel Tessier, and the defences mounted
fifty-eight guns. At the outset, when the municipal
council assembled, the mayor, a man of Bavarian
origin named Lauthenslager, wished to surrender,
but was overruled and dismissed by his colleagues.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 249
He went over to the enemy, as might have been
expected, and after the annexation the Germans, the
better to oppress their dear delivered brethren, re-
appointed him to the mayoralty. However, although
the enemy added several large siege guns to his artillery
and by September 22 half Bitche had been destroyed,
there was still no surrender. Thus a blockade ensued,
and lasted until March 23, 1871, that is, for twenty-
two days subsequent to the ratification of the prelimi-
naries of peace by the French National Assembly at
Bordeaux, and even then it was only on express orders
from their own Government that Tessier and his men
evacuated Bitche. The besieging force was one of
Bavarians. Tessier contemptuously refused their
offer of the honours of war, and declared that he would
only depart provided that the enemy kept out of sight
and did not enter until the last French soldier had left.
The Germans, unwillingly rendering homage to such
stalwartness, agreed to those stipulations, and only
then, with their colours flying, their band playing,
their fourteen field-guns and their train of munitions,
did Tessier and his gallant troops march away from
the little fortress which the Germans had failed to
take but which was, unhappily, to be surrendered to
them by the terms of the treaty of peace. Episodes,
such as that of the resistance of Bitche, help to con-
sole one for much that happened during the Franco-
German War.*
Take also the case of little Longwy, known in
Louis XIV's time as the Iron Gate of France, but now-
adays a place of small importance. Defended by
rather more than 4000 men, with a couple of hundred
guns, it held out until Janaury 25, 1871 surrendering
* Tessier was afterwards promoted and appointed to the command of the
fort of Vincennes, near Paris,
250 THE TRUE STORY OF
only three days before Paris capitulated, and it was
in ruins when the Germans entered. Montmedy was,
for a time, neglected by the enemy, not being abso-
lutely invested until the first fortnight in November,
when, without warning, it was suddenly bombarded.
About a month later (December 14) it had to surrender.
Thionville, north of Metz and known nowadays by the
silly German name of Diedenhofen, was also bombarded
without warning, and at one time subjected to a rain
of incendiary bombs, each containing about a gallon
of inflammable liquid, for fifty-four consecutive hours.
The Germans were asked to allow the women and
children to depart. Not they ! So the massacre of
the innocents continued. All of that, of course, was
long ago, but the thought of it still makes my blood
boil. Our German " friends " of the later seventies,
the eighties, the nineties, and the earlier years of the
twentieth century have done little worse even during
the present war. Like father, like son : fiendish-
ness has always lurked in the German blood.
Let me now mention Verdun, which in 1870 de-
cisively wiped away the stigma attaching to its
lamentable surrender during the Revolutionary War.
Invested on August 24, it was savagely bombarded by
the Germans in mid- October, and afterwards inter-
mittently for some weeks. Baron Guerin de Walders-
bach commanded the defenders, who on October 28
made a vigorous sortie in which they destroyed
several of the German batteries. Early in the follow-
ing month, however, news arrived that Bazaine had
surrendered Metz on October 27. Discouragement
then overtook the defenders of Verdun. Nevertheless
they were able to demand honourable conditions. The
regular troops were to be prisoners of war, but they
were to retain their knapsacks and private effects. The
ALSACE-LORRAINE 251
Mobile Guards, born at Verdun, were to go free, the
Gendarmes also, and to retain their horses. No war
contribution or indemnity w^as to be levied on the
town. The enemy troops were not to be billeted on
the inhabitants, but lodged in the barracks and other
military buildings. The town itself and all the war
materiel which it contained were to be restored to
France at the conclusion of peace. Those conditions
having been accepted by the Germans, they entered
Verdun on November 9.
We will now turn to Toul, w r hose defence of about
five weeks' duration was a kind of revanche for the
prompt surrender of Nancy, the latter's young men
having thrown themselves into this fortress directly
the defence of their native city was abandoned. The
commander of the garrison was a cavalry major (chef
tfescadrori) bearing the Alsatian name of Huck. He
had with him altogether 2296 men, including 130 of
the 4th Regiment of Cuirassiers (whose depot was
at Toul, and to which Huck himself belonged), 25
artillerymen, 500 linesmen, and 30 gendarmes, the
remainder being Gardes Mobiles of the department,
untrained, undisciplined, and mostly without uni-
forms. There were about 200 pieces of artillery.
It is recorded that the mayor and the municipal
council wished to surrender, but were overruled.
Having so few trained troops Huck was obliged to
abandon some outer works, a sign of weakness which
encouraged the enemy to attempt an assault on
August 16. This was vigorously repulsed, however,
and a siege on the old lines ensued. After bombard-
ment came a second assault which also was defeated,
and the Government of National Defence in Paris,
on hearing of this stout resistance, decreed : " The
town of Toul has deserved well of the country."
252 THE TRUE STORY OF
During the latter part of September several large
siege guns were brought to bear on three sides of
the town, and the ensuing destruction was so great
that on the 23rd Huck put up the white flag. The
Germans were particularly furious with the defenders
on account of their praiseworthy achievement in
intercepting the direct road to Paris during five
weeks. Nevertheless, after the war, a Court of
Inquiry blamed Huck for having surrendered before
the fortifications were breached, and for having
failed to destroy his guns and his munitions. At
the same time it praised him for having prolonged
the resistance in spite of the urgent requests of the
municipality and the enemy's insidious offers.
According to the army regulations of France, and
those of most other countries, there has to be an
inquiry into every capitulation that takes place. It
was this circumstance which led to the court-martial-
ling of Bazaine. Owing to the unrest that prevailed
in France after the war, the division of the electorate
into sharply antagonistic parties, the large number
of Bonapartist officers still in the service, and the
recent tragic rebellion of the Paris Commune, Thiers
did not wish to put Bazaine on his trial, for fear lest
the stirring up of a prodigious quantity of mud
should lead to another national convulsion. But the
President's hand was forced by the military regula-
tions, and thus when, in August 1872, the Court of
Inquiry, presided over by old one-eyed Marshal
Baraguey d'Hilliers, a relic of Napoleon's days,
reported that Bazaine had " caused the loss of an
army of 150,000 men and the stronghold of Metz,
that the entire responsibility was his, that as Com-
mander-in-Chief he had not done what military duty
prescribed, that, on the contrary, he had held with
ALSACE-LORRAINE 253
the enemy an intercourse unexampled in history,
and that he had delivered to the enemy the colours
which he ought to have destroyed, thereby inflicting
a crowning humiliation on brave men whose honour it
was his duty to defend " when, I say, those findings
had been recorded, the Marshal's trial could not
be prevented. Moreover, he himself was constrained
by those findings to apply for a court martial.
It is quite impossible for me to give in the pages
remaining at my disposal a full account of what
happened at Metz after Bazaine and his forces were
invested there. Many books have been written on
the subject, one of the latest and best (issued during
the present war) being " Metz en 1870," by M.
Felicien Champsaur. Here I have only enough space
to mention a few T matters connected with Bazaine's
betrayal of his country's highest interests. A few
sorties certainly took place, including some provision-
ing raids, but no real military effort commensurate
with the situation was made. Moreover, Bazaine
did not attempt to avail himself of certain means of
communication with the rest of France which were
known to exist. He preferred to correspond secretly
with Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia, and even
to ask him for information, a proceeding absolutely
forbidden by the provisions of the Military Code.
The Marshal was largely influenced by a scoundrel
named Regnier, whom the Germans allowed to pass
through their lines, and who falsely pretended to be
an authorized emissary from the Empress Eugenie.
After a time Bazaine sent General Boyer to the
German head- quarters at Versailles to negotiate with
Bismarck on his behalf. Boyer, on returning to
Metz, repeated a pack of German lies respecting the
state of France and its inability to continue the war,
254 THE TRUE STORY OF
though he well knew what great efforts the National
Defence was making. In corresponding with Frede-
rick Charles, Bazaine frequently referred to his even-
tual " surrender " ; he confided to Regnier, whom he
ought to have distrusted, that he had only sufficient
provisions to last until mid-October ; he refused to
attempt a coup de main on Thionville, which was
only a few miles distant and was still holding out in
order to prevent the great quantities of provisions
stored there from falling into the enemy's hands.
Further, Bazaine persistently concealed facts or
falsified them in his intercourse with his fellow-
marshals, Canrobert and Leboeuf, and the other
principal commanders who were with him at Metz ;
and, briefly, he left undone many things which
military honour required him to do, and did others
which military honour and duty forbade. He sacrificed
his country's interests to his personal ambition, wish-
ing to induce the Germans to allow him and his
troops to march out of Metz and restore the fallen
Empire, with, however, the young Imperial Prince
on the throne, and he, Bazaine, as High Constable
and Protector of France ! That is the explanation
of his treachery. He was not bribed. Ambition
turned him from the path of duty.
But the Germans played with him, and when
his provisions were exhausted he was constrained to
surrender at discretion giving up to the enemy the
strongest fortress of France and an army of 170,000
men (including sick and wounded), with 53 eagles,*
1665 guns, 278,280 rifles and muskets, 22,984,000
* In defiance of the Marshal's orders many colours were burnt by indignant
officers. Like Kiiss at Strasburg, Marechal, the Mayor of Metz, did much
to alleviate the sufferings of the civilian population. Both of these devoted
men died virtually of grief not long after the war.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 255
cartridges, 3,239,225 projectiles, and 412,734 tons of
powder. Bazaine's trial began on October 6 and
ended on December 10, 1873. He was convicted and
sentenced to death, but the capital penalty was
altered by his old comrade MacMahon, who had become
President of the Republic, to one of imprisonment
for life. With the help of his wife, however, and the
connivance of sundry officials, Bazaine escaped from
the fort of the He Sainte-Marguerite, off the coast of
Provence, in August 1874. He afterwards led a
miserable life in Spain, where he died in 1888.
In striking contrast with the defence of Metz was
that of the little fortress of Belfort. Standing on an
eminence in a gap between the Vosges and the Jura
Mountains, at the edge, as it were, of the Alsatian
alluvial plain, and at a point where the Alsatian,
Lorrainer, and Jurassian races may be said to mingle,
Belfort once belonged to the Counts of Montbeliard,
who erected its original castle in the twelfth century.
It passed to the Counts of Ferrette, and through them
to the House of Austria, from which it was wrested
by the French during the Thirty Years' War. Bestowed
as an appanage on Mazarin the lordship remained in
the possession of his heirs until they became extinct.
Inhabited in 1840 by about 6000 people, and in 1870
by about 8500, the town now has a population
of nearly 40,000 many Alsatians having migrated
thither in order to escape German rule. The sur-
rounding district, which since 1871 has formed the
so-called Territoire de Belfort, returning one senator
and two deputies to the French Legislature, comprises
106 communes, and, inclusive of Belfort itself, there
were at the last census more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Owing to the lack of coal and minerals the region
was formerly of an almost exclusively agricultural
256 THE TRUE STORY OF
character, but since the Franco-German War numerous
textile works, rope-walks, clock- and watch-making
establishments, distilleries, forges, machine and wire
works have sprung up there, all testifying to Alsatian
industry and enterprise.
Besieged in 1813-14 by Austrian and Bavarian
forces, Belfort, defended by Major Legrand and
3000 men, did not surrender until after Napoleon's
abdication at Fontainebleau. In the following year,
when the famous General Lecourbe commanded the
garrison, it put up an equally able defence against
the Allies. In 1870 the town was commanded by an
engineer chef de bataillon, later Colonel, Denfert-Roche-
reau, a native of Saint-Maixent, famous for its military
school. At that time Belfort, although fortified, was
by no means the strong place which it has since
become, but Denfert-Rochereau's technical knowledge
enabled him to improvise additional defences, particu-
larly as the enemy did not advance upon this corner
of Alsace until the end of October. The garrison
consisted of 17,000 men, of whom 3500 were regulars
of the 45th and 84th Regiments of the Line. There
were a few artillerymen, but the bulk of the defenders
belonged to the Mobile Guard, some of them being
Alsatians and Vosgians, others coming from the
Garonne country, others from the Lyonnais and
adjacent districts. There were also some mobilized
National Guards, and a detachment of douaniers
(customs officers) from the Jura region. The defenders
had 374 guns, with a stock of 75,000 shells and 80,000
round shot, and enough fresh or salt meat and flour
to last them for 145 days. Numerous departures
had reduced the civilian population to 4000, to feed
whom the municipality had sufficient meat for 142
days. The siege began on November 3 and lasted
ALSACE-LORRAINE 257
for 103 days, 73 of which were days of bombardment,
during which the Germans vainly rained 98,000 shells
on the gallant little stronghold. No such bombard-
ment had been previously recorded in history.
The investing army was commanded by General von
Treskow, a typical German officer. When (as in the
case of Strasburg) the Swiss asked him to allow the
departure of the women and children still remaining
in the town, offering to send them to Porrentruy, he
peremptorily refused the application, declaring that
the women of Belfort were perfect fiends who cut
off the noses, tore off the ears, and put out the eyes
of all German prisoners who fell into the hands of
the garrison. When the Swiss delegates requested
permission to enter the town to inquire into that
monstrous and I may add, preposterous charge,
Treskow replied that he would not allow them to
pass through his lines, and that if they should attempt
to do so he would have them shot.
The hospital was bombarded, though it flew the
Red Cross flag, and many sick and wounded were
killed in their beds. But that mattered little to
General von Treskow. At eight o'clock on the morn-
ing of February 13 Belfort fired its last cannon-shot.
Denfert-Rochereau had just received orders from the
National Defence Government to surrender the town
in accordance with the terms of the armistice con-
cluded with Germany. The garrison was to receive
the honours of war and retire to the interior of France.
The evacuation took place a few days later, the com-
mander withdrawing with 340 officers and 12,582
men. He had lost 32 officers and 4713 men during
the siege, nearly a thousand of these having been
killed. More than that number were in hospital at
the time of the capitulation, and the remainder had
258 THE TRUE STORY OF
been taken prisoners whilst defending some of the
outlying works. The Germans entered Belfort on
February 18,* and remained there until August 2,
1873.
Bartholdi, the able Alsatian sculptor, commemo-
rated the defence of Belfort by designing the famous
Lion, which still looks down on the gallant town, to
which Antonin Mercie contributed the almost equally
famous monument which shows an Alsacienne support-
ing a dying Mobile Guard. The town and its territory
all that remained to France of Alsace from 1871
to the advent of the present war was saved to her
by the patriotism of Thiers. Bismarck hankered for
this strip of ground. He well knew that possession
of the Gap of Belfort would greatly facilitate any
future German invasion of France. But Thiers was
no fool, and when Bismarck offered, in return for
Belfort, to forgo the German entry into Paris, the
French statesman did not hesitate. He preferred
that his country should suffer a few days of humilia-
tion rather than incur irremediable detriment. Thus
was Belfort saved.
In Lorraine, south-west of Nancy and Luneville,
there is a little town called Rambervillers. On
October 9, 1870, it was attacked by 2000 Germans,
and vigorously defended by a couple of hundred
National Guards, good marksmen all, who kept the
enemy at bay for several hours and inflicted many
casualties on him before retreating. Twenty-one
wounded Guards fell into the hands of the Germans,
who immediately put them to death. Appended to
the arms of Rambervillers is the Cross of the Legion
of Honour conferred upon the town for the gallant
* Not a drop of wine nor a crust of bread then remained in the town,
and the generous Swiss had to succour the inhabitants.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 259
effort which it made. During the siege of Strasburg
the neighbouring bourg of Robertsau was burnt to
the ground by the Germans for harbouring enemies.
The invaders seized all the tobacco in the Alsatian
depots and sold it for 24,000. At Erstein, a little
tobacco-growing locality, they demanded the delivery
of 6000 cigars in three days. In the canton of Barr,
inhabited by some 19,000 people, they sent out
requisitions for 54,000 kilogrammes of bread, 72,000
kilogrammes of meat, 18,000 kilogrammes of rice,
1800 kilogrammes of salt, the same weight of roasted
and 2400 kilogrammes of unroasted coffee, 50,000
litres of wine, and vast quantities of oats, hay, and
straw. They continued to seize goods even during
the armistice, and great sales of plunder often took
place in the German frontier towns.
To such a point were the dear Alsatian brothers
and sisters despoiled that the articles offered at
those sales comprised sheets, table-cloths, curtains,
wearing apparel, including aprons and women's caps,
clocks, and even children's toys. Plunder was some-
times conveyed to Switzerland and sold there. The
Easier Nachrichten announced in January 1871 a sale
of articles of furniture from La Malmaison, formerly
belonging to the Empress Josephine, also of tables,
secretaires, and consoles which had belonged to
Mme. de Pompadour, Louis XV, and Louis XVI,
a painting by Baron Gerard depicting some children
carried off by an eagle, another by Gerome represent-
ing some young Greeks inciting cocks to fight, and
described as having secured a first prize at the Paris
Salon of 1847, together with a number of sketches by
Delacroix. Other lots included monumental clocks,
fine porcelain and glass, and a great variety of tools
filched from Alsatian factories and workshops.
260 THE TRUE STORY OF
But to return to the German exactions and out-
rages, a levy of 40,000 was made on the little Alsatian
town of Haguenau, which was further required to
lodge a division of Badeners. Nancy was on one
occasion fined 4000 because a shot which injured
nobody was fired in one of its streets. A telegraph
wire having been broken near a little village the
inhabitants had to pay 80. Three carts were
requisitioned at a hamlet near Baccarat, but one
could not come as the horse had fallen lame. There-
upon, money being scarce among the peasantry,
they were ordered to provide 50 litres of brandy
under penalty of being shot. When Prince Frederick
Charles stayed at Nancy, 40 fowls, 25 Ib. of butter,
and 100 eggs had to be provided for his table every
day. His staff also requisitioned 1500 bottles of cham-
pagne. Several inhabitants of Nancy were murdered.
There were many outrages at Briey, Arrancy, Flavigny,
and other places. In fact, robbery and debauchery
became rampant and continued even during the armis-
tice. Prisoners of war were often treated infamously.
There was the case of a train on its way through
Lorraine to Germany, in which French soldiers were
kept without a scrap of food for eighty-seven hours
in the depth of winter. Many were frozen, and were
pulled out dead. Yet people talk of present -war
outrages as if they were absolutely unparalleled in
modern times.
A certain Herr von Bonnin had been appointed
Governor of Lorraine, and a certain Count Renard
became Prefect of Nancy. Both of these men were
of French ancestry, but they ruled in the very best
Prussian style. In January 1871 a party of francs-
tireurs stole into the little village of Fontenoy, near
Toul, and destroyed a bridge there. The Germans
ALSACE-LORRAINE 261
immediately set fire to Fontenoy without allowing
its inhabitants to remove a scrap of furniture from
their houses, or even their few remaining cattle from
their sheds. Further, Herr von Bonnin imposed on
the province of Lorraine a special fine of 400,000.*
Next, Count Renard requisitioned 500 men to rebuild
the bridge. None being forthcoming he declared that
he would render all master-men responsible. Finally
he issued an order stating that if the necessary men
were not at the railway station within twenty-four
hours, he would have a certain number arrested and
immediately shot. That was one of the customary
forms of terrorism. In the industrial towns of
Alsace-Lorraine men and women were constantly
requisitioned to work for the Germans, even as
Belgians, French folk, and others have been requisi-
tioned during the Great War. In some instances,
when sufficient labour could not be procured, machi-
nery was taken to pieces and removed to Germany
so that it might be utilized there. This course was
taken with respect to some of the works at Ars-sur-
Moselle, near Metz.
In spite of the German occupation many Alsatians
and Lorrainers managed to get away and join the
armies which Gambetta improvised. The idea that
their dear delivered brethren should flee from their
rule and fight against them particularly incensed the
* Bonnin's decree ran as follows: "In the name of His Majesty the
King of Prussia. Whereas the bridge of Fontenoy, to the east of Toul, has
been destroyed, it is edicted that the circumscription under the general
government of Lorraine shall pay an extraordinary tax of ten millions of
francs as a fine for this offence. Notice thereof is hereby given to the public,
with this remark, that the apportionment of the fine will be subsequently
determined and that payment thereof will be enforced with the greatest
severity. The village of Fontenoy was immediately set on fire, with the ex-
ception of a few buildings reserved for the occupation of the troops. Done at
Nancy, January 23, 1871. The Governor-General of Lorraine : VON
262 THE TRUE STORY OF
invaders, and the following decree was eventually
issued :
WE, Wilhelm, King of Prussia, etc. etc., hereby make the following order
for the General Governments of Alsace and Lorraine :
I. Whosoever shall join the French forces shall be punished with the
confiscation of all his present and inheritable property and be banished for
a period of ten years.
IT. Sentence shall be pronounced by a judgment of our General Govern-
ments, and, three days after its publication in the official part of a journal
issued in either Government, shall enter into force and be carried into effect
by our civil and military authorities.
III. All payments due at any later date to the condemned shall be
accounted null and void.
IV. All deeds of gift or bequests made by the condemned out of his
fortune after the publication of this decree shall be null and void.
V. Whosoever desires to quit his place of residence must request per-
mission to do so from the [German] Prefect, stating, in writing, the cause
and object of his departure. Whosoever absents himself for more than one
week without permission to do so shall be held legally to have joined the
French forces.
VI. The Prefects shall prepare and control presence-lists of all male
inhabitants.
VII. The money accruing from all confiscations shall be paid into the
treasuries of the General Governments.
VIII. Return from banishment shall entail the penalty specified by Clause
33 of the Penal Code.
IX. This decree shall enter into force on the day of its publication.
Done at Head-quarters at Versailles, this 16th December, 1870.
WILHELM.
v. Bismarck,
v. Boon.
However, the Alsatians and Lorrainers paid no
heed to that decree. When an old veteran of the
Crimea, Magenta, and Solferino, named Bischer,
belonging to Mulhouse, was arrested and cast into
prison by the Germans for recruiting young Alsatians
for the French army, he replied to every question
put to him by his captors, " I did my duty." He
was shot for his so-called offence, but this did not
prevent nearly 20,000 Alsatians from acting as he
and others suggested. I have said that the Vosges
mountains swarmed with francs-tireurs. These men
ALSACE-LORRAINE 263
carried on an unremitting partisan warfare against
the smaller German detachments. The enemy was
also quite infuriated by the daring exploits of some
bands operating between Colmar and Belfort.
The instances which I have given of German
greed and oppression might be multiplied many times
over. Were I to recount all that occurred the story
would be as long and as gruesome as those attaching
nowadays to Belgium, Northern France, Poland,
Russia, Serbia, and Rumania. There are, of course,
categories and degrees of infamy. Generally speak-
ing, the Prussians distinguished themselves by their
innate passion for plundering. They w r ere the thieves
of the invading armies. The Southern Germans were
more particularly the sensualists : the Bavarians
excelled in crimes of lust. Brutality was rampant
among one and all. Even as has been the case in
these later times the words Krieg ist Krieg (War is
war) were ever on the lips of the invaders, like a
kind of refrain, as if its incessant repetition would
serve to justify their innumerable crimes.
Whilst Alsace and Lorraine and other parts of
France were under the German boot, Paris was
beleaguered, and the tide of war spread on one hand
to Picardy, Artois, and Normandy, then more south-
ward to the Orleanais and Touraine, and thence more
westward to Maine and the confines of Anjou. East-
ward it rolled from Lorraine and Champagne into
Burgundy and Franche-Comte. Gambetta made
stupendous efforts to save his country. Faidherbe
wrestled with the Germans in North- Western France,
Chanzy contended with them in the west-central
provinces, Bourbaki and Garibaldi struggled to stem
the invasion in the east. But might triumphed over
right, and when starving Paris fell on January 28,
264 THE TRUE STORY OF
1871, an armistice ensued as a preliminary to peace.
It was arranged that a French National Assembly
should be elected to decide upon the German peace
terms. Alsace-Lorraine, already doomed the Prussian
sovereign's decree set out on a previous page shows
that in December he already regarded the coveted
territory as a German possession and its inhabitants
as his subjects replied to the cruelty of fate by a
defiant vote. To the intense anger of the Germans,
only candidates opposed to severance from France
were elected by the two provinces.* Kiiss, the
popular Mayor of Strasburg, polled most votes in
the Bas-Rhin (Lower Alsace), securing more than
98,000 suffrages. In the Haut-Rhin (Upper Alsace)
Keller-Haas headed the poll with 67,725. Denfert-
Rochereau secured 54,911 ; whilst Gambetta, whose
name implied the rejection of the peace terms, was
elected by both departments, polling in the first
named 56,721 votes, and in the second, 51,957. He
was returned by seven other departments of France,
including the Seine (Paris), but he resolved to sit
for the Strasburg division of Alsace.
Directly the wretched terms of peace became
known the representatives of Alsace-Lorraine signed
a strong protest, which was deposited with the officials
of the new Assembly. It claimed for the territories
whose annexation was proposed, the right to refuse
to be separated from France. It recited that the
provinces had constantly sacrificed themselves for
the country's grandeur, and had sealed with their
* Their names were Fr. Andre, Albrecht, Bardon, Boersch, Boell-Titot,
Ed. Bamberger, S. Chauffeur, Denfert-Roehereau, Domes, Deschange,
Gambetta, Jules Grosjean, F. Hartmann, Humbert, Kable, E. Keller-Haas,
A. Koechlin, Kiiss, Melsheim, Th. Noblot, Ostennann, V. Rehm, Rencker,
A. Saglio, A. Scheurer-Kestner, Schneegans, A. Tachard, E. Teutsch, eto.
All the foregoing signed the protest against annexation by Germany.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 265
blood the indissoluble bond which united them to
France. It protested that France could not consent
to the cession to Germany, that, although the Assembly
had been elected by universal suffrage, it had no
right to ratify an agreement destructive of the national
integrity. It urged (unhappily in vain) that modern
Europe could not afford to ratify the surrender of the
provinces, allow a people to be seized like a herd of
cattle, and remain deaf to the repeated protests of
the threatened populations. Surely, for the sake
of her own preservation, Europe could not sanction
such an abuse of force. The peace proposed would
constitute a mere truce, and prove a permanent incite-
ment to war. Finally, the protest said :
We take our compatriots of France and the Governments and nations of
the whole world to witness that we shall regard as null and void any decrees
or treaties, votes or plebiscites, which may consent to the surrender in favour
of a foreign country of all or part of our territories of Alsace and Lorraine.
We hereby proclaim that the right of the Alsatians and the Lorrainers to
remain members of the French nation is and shall remain inviolable, and
we swear, not only for ourselves but for our constituents, our children and
their descendants also, that this right shall be for ever claimed by all ways
and means, and against all usurpers.
On February 17, 1871, this declaration was read
to the Assembly by deputy Keller, who had com-
manded the francs-tireurs of the Upper Rhine. But
events unhappily took their course, and on March 1
the Assembly was called upon to ratify the prelimi-
naries of peace. After speeches against the treaty
had been delivered by Victor Hugo, Louis Blanc,
Edgard Quinet, and Keller, Grosjean, previously
Prefect of the Upper Rhine under the National
Defence, read a final protest on behalf of Alsace-
Lorraine. It ran as follows :
Before the peace negotiations began, the representatives of Alsace and
Lorraine deposited with the bureau of the Assembly a declaration setting
forth on behalf of those provinces in the most positive manner their deter-
266 ALSACE-LORRAINE
mination and their right to remain French. Handed over, in defiance of
all justice and by an odious abuse of force, to the domination of foreigners,
we have a last duty to discharge. We yet once again declare that a covenant
which disposes of us without our consent is null and void. The liberty to
claim our rights remains open to one and all in such manner and degree as
our consciences may dictate. At the moment of leaving this hall, where
feelings of dignity prevent us from staying any longer, the supreme thought
in the depths of our hearts, despite the bitterness of our grief, is one of grati-
tude to those who for six months past have not ceased to defend us, and of
unchangeable attachment to the country from which we are torn by violence.
All our wishes will follow you, and we shall wait, with firm confidence in
the future, for the time when regenerated France will resume control of her
great destiny. Your brothers of Alsace and Lorraine, separated at this
moment from the common family, will retain a filial affection for France in
her absence from their hearths until the day arrives when she will resume
her place there once more.
When the vote on the preliminaries of peace was
taken, 546 members of the Assembly voted in favour
of their ratification, whilst 107 deputies pronounced
against them, these including a number of men who
were then already, or became subsequently, con-
spicuous figures in France. Among the names I find
those of Gambetta, Clemenceau, Victor Hugo, Louis
Blanc, Edgard Quinet, Henri Brisson, Emmanuel
Arago, Edmond Adam, Arnaud de 1'Ariege, Floquet,
Dorian, Edouard Lockroy, Duclerc, Ranc, Scheurer-
Kestner, Felix Pyat, and Generals Chanzy, Billot,
and Mazure. Of the whole band which thus rejected
the conditions imposed on France by Germany,
Clemenceau, I believe, is now the only survivor.
If he still be Prime Minister of France on the
hastening day of a Victorious Peace he will know
how to redeem the promise implied by the vote he
gave on March 1, 1871. The definitive treaty imposed
by Bismarck w r as signed at Frankfort on May 10, and
ratified by the French Assembly eight days after-
wards.
IX
UNDER GERMAN RULE
Bismarck and Alsace-Lorraine : Why the Provinces were not annexed
to Prussia : French Money as Compensation for German Frightful-
ness : The Option between French and German Nationality : The
Exodus and the continued Emigration : Population of the Provinces
in various Years : The Impossibility of a Plebiscitum : Education
and Gennanization : Officialdom in the Provinces : Dr. von Moeller's
Regime : Bishop Raess's great Betrayal : Some Quotations from
Bismarck : Episodes in later History War Scares, the Schnsebele and
Zabern Affairs, etc. : The Constitution of 1911 : The Head Func-
tionaries and the Chambers : The Garrison early in 1914 : Concluding
Remarks.
IN addressing the first Reichstag of the newly con-
stituted German Empire in August 1871, Prince
Bismarck, whilst declaring that it had been necessary
to incorporate Alsace-Lorraine with the territory of
Germany " in order to ensure the peace of Europe,"
candidly admitted that the aversion of the people
was an obstacle. " We shall strive, however," said
he, " to win back to us this population by means of
Teutonic patience and affection (!). We shall, in
particular, grant communal liberties." On a second
occasion he stated that it was better Alsace-Lorraine
should hold the position of a province of the Empire
than be annexed to Prussia (which had been his
original intention), because he had found that the
inhabitants had greater sympathy with Germany
generally than with the Prussian State. He expressed
his belief in two influences, the material well-being of
the existing generation and the educational training
267
268 THE TRUE STORY OF
of the next. It was in furtherance of the first object,
he said, that he had accepted a part of the war
indemnity payable by the French in notes of the
Bank of France, so that he might at once have some
funds to supply the needs of the population to whom
those notes were familiar. As regards the other part
of his programme, as he had been given a free hand
to deal with the provinces until the early part of
1873, he issued an edict enforcing compulsory educa-
tion after the German pattern on every child above
six years of age. Much was made of the fact that a
sum of nearly 2,000,000 was given to Strasburg in
compensation for its bombardment, but this money
came out of the indemnity of 200 millions which
France had covenanted to pay to Germany. It is, of
course, easy to be generous with other people's money.
One curious little circumstance may be mentioned in
connexion with the rebuilding of Strasburg. Vauban's
old citadel had been very badly battered by the
bombardment, and the Germans, extremely proud of
this achievement, invited people to come and inspect
their work of destruction, setting up a notice-board
and a turnstile, and charging each visitor a franc as
admission fee. Even Barnum might have shrunk
from such a proceeding.
In connexion with the mode of payment of the
French war indemnity, the provinces suffered from
the curtailment of some privileges which had been
previously agreed upon. There was to have been
free trade between them and France until the middle
of 1873, but, in return for Bismarck's assent to
modifications in the French payments, it was agreed
that the free-trade period should cease at the end of
1872. Moreover, the right of the inhabitants to
choose individually either French or German nation-
ALSACE-LORRAINE 269
ality was in like manner curtailed, the period during
which this might be done being finally limited to
about fifteen months after the signing of the Treaty
of Frankfort, in such wise as to expire on September
30, 1872. Staehling, an Alsatian writer, contrasts
this limitation with the delay granted in 1815 to the
inhabitants of the Sarre region, annexed to Prussia
and Bavaria, who were allowed six years to determine
their nationality. Thiers was rightly anxious to free
France from the German occupation and for that pur-
pose to expedite the payment of the war indemnity ;
but Pouyer-Quertier, his Minister of Finances, was a
Norman cotton-spinner, jealous of the Alsatian textile
manufactures, and though he smoothed away certain
financial difficulties, he calmly sacrificed the interests
of the Alsatians and Lorrainers.
At the outset, vast numbers of the people declared
for French nationality. Many thousands flocked
right eagerly into France, the population of such
towns as Nancy, Luneville, Saint-Die, Belfort, etc.,
going up by leaps and bounds. Many important
businesses were likewise transferred to French terri-
tory. But when the Germans made it known that all
persons electing to remain French citizens must leave
Alsace-Lorraine, thousands found themselves in posi-
tions of the greatest difficulty. Many were tied to
the soil which furnished their only means of sub-
sistence, and discovered that if they decided for
French nationality they must part with their little
all. Thus the number of options in favour of France
dwindled as time went on. There was at first no
great influx of German agricultural settlers, willing to
buy the land, though directly peace had been signed
thousands of German workmen poured into the
annexed territory to take the places of the Alsatian
270 THE TRUE STORY OF
workmen, who, not being linked to the soil like the
peasantry, had speedily removed to France, w r here
they well knew that their nationality, their industry,
and their skill would make them welcome.
At the same time the provinces became a dumping-
ground for German officials. In the very midst of
the war Bismarck had received 6000 applications for
official posts in Alsace-Lorraine, and the annexation
brought swarms of would-be functionaries in the
train of the hordes of tobacconists and vendors of
indecent photographs by whom the provinces were
overrun. On the other hand, as the option period
drew to a close, a woeful exodus of Alsatians and
Lorrainers set in. For the reasons I have mentioned,
this exodus was not so great as it might have been ;
but in the last days of September 1872, between
sixty and seventy thousand people crossed the new
frontier into France, accompanied at times by little
carts in which their few household goods were piled,
or carrying packs on their shoulders, or trudging
along with wheelbarrows containing bundles, crockery,
pans, and pots. Our Annual Register for 1872 grossly
underestimates the number of Alsatians and Lor-
rainers who left their homes. Thousands never for-
mally signed any declaration of option, but simply
fled. The same publication is in error in stating that
when the German army conscription lists were opened
more young men presented themselves for service
than could be received into the ranks. That is simply
a piece of bunkum derived from some German source.
From 1872 to the present time there has always been
a shortage of conscripts, notwithstanding the plant-
ing of thousands of Germans in the provinces. In
1878 the territory was liable to contribute 40,833
conscripts, but only 4822 came forward willingly, and
ALSACE-LORRAINE 271
3981 were sentenced, in their absence, to imprisonment
for having emigrated without permission to France,
Luxemburg, and Switzerland. Further, in 1884, among
38,872 who were liable there were as many as 9854
defaulters. Even German official statistics have testi-
fied year after year to the reluctance of young
I Alsatians and Lorrainers to enter the army.
As for the German emigration statistics they apply
only to open, authorized emigrations from Alsace-
Lorraine to distant parts of the world. To France
emigration has never been officially authorized. The
returns merely mention 517 emigrations from the
provinces in 1913, and 249 during the pre-war period
of the following year. Equally recent French figures
respecting the number of Alsatians and Lorrainers
naturalized in France are not available, but I find
that as late as 1911 there were 1990 such naturaliza-
tions. An examination of the successive issues of the
Annuaire statistique de la France from 1873 to the
above-mentioned date would show that, in spite of
all prohibitions and obstacles, at least 1,000,000 people
have come into the old country in order to escape from
German rule.
The population of Alsace-Lorraine has undoubtedly
increased since the annexation, when it was approxi-
mately 1,200,000. In 1885 it stood at 1,564,355, in
1890 at 1,603,107, in 1900 at 1,717,451, and on
December 1, 1910 (the last census), at 1,874,014,
representing a density of 333*9 inhabitants per square
mile. There was then a majority of males 965,625
against 908,389 females. The increase which has
taken place in spite of so much emigration has been
due to the fact that both the Alsatians and the
German settlers are very prolific races.
The facts which I have recited will, I trust, make
272 THE TRUE STORY OF
it clear that any referendum to the population of the
present time would be absolutely misleading unless
the German settlers and their offspring were absolutely
debarred from voting. Moreover, even if the principle
of a referendum were accepted all sorts of difficulties
would arise. When Savoy and the county of Nice
were united to France in 1860 the population remained
undisturbed. Its voting was not influenced by the
presence of any foreign element. It only knew that
the Italian Government was willing to assent to the
cession, provided the inhabitants agreed to it. In
the case of Alsace-Lorraine it is very different, and
not only would it be right to eliminate the German
element from the voting, but, on the other hand,
equity would require that the scattered Alsatian-
Lorrainers should be consulted.
There are large numbers in France, many thousands
also in Algeria, where grants of land were made to
them by the French Government. Thousands have
also settled in Switzerland, and, further, thousands
have gone to North and South America and other
lands beyond the seas. There is even a considerable
number in Great Britain, whose interests are in the
hands of the Ligue patriotique des Alsaciens-Lorrains,
of which Lord Balfour of Burleigh is the honorary
president, the acting president being M. E. Roudolphi.*
Now in eight out of every ten cases the emigration
from Alsace-Lorraine has not been voluntary. These
people were attached to their native land, and in all
probability under French rule an immense majority
of them would have remained at home. Excepting
in the four years 1872, 1888, 1889, and 1890, when the
proportion of emigrants from French territory to
countries beyond the sea was 27, 61, 82, and 54 per
* The offices are at 18 Green Street, Leicester Square, London.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 273
100,000 of the population, the average since 1871 has
never exceeded 20 per 100,000, and has often been
considerably less.* It may be taken that even the
total emigration from France, which would include
that to continental States, has been less than that
from any other country in Europe the emigration
from the United Kingdom almost invariably supplying
the highest figures.
The great bulk of the Alsatian emigrants left their
territory- on account of the German rule. If a
plebiscitum were taken it would be necessary to
include in it all the elements of the people dispersed
in one and another land. Is such a thing possible,
thinkable even ? But the French Government
through the President of the Republic, successive
Prime Ministers and Foreign Secretaries has abso-
lutely repudiated the idea of any plebiscitum at all.f
Alsace-Lorraine was torn from France by force, and
must be unconditionally returned. What of the
German settlers ? I may be asked. I answer that
sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander also ; but
I will add that the French Republican Government
has always been more equitable, more generous,
than that of the German Empire, and I am quite
sure that when Alsace-Lorraine is restored to
France the German settlers will be allowed far
more time and freedom to decide on what course
they will take than were granted to the inhabitants
in 1871-72.
An important point in Bismarck's programme was
the diffusion of education on German lines. A new
university for Strasburg was nominally inaugurated
on May 1, 1872. The building in which that university
* Annuaire statistique de la France, 1913.
F t An important letter on the subject, written by M. Roudolphi, appeared
in the Daily Telegraph on August 30, 1917.
274 THE TRUE STORY OF
is now installed had not then been erected. A
certain Professor Briich was placed at the head of the
new institution, which was afterwards endowed by
the Reichstag, and attended at first almost ex-
clusively by a couple of hundred young Germans
deliberately imported into the province. Just before
the present war, however, this university, which
includes faculties of theology, law, medicine, philo-
sophy, mathematics, and natural science, had 178
professors with an annual attendance of about 1100
students. I am not at all inclined to dispute the
fact that the German rulers have greatly increased the
number of schools in Alsace-Lorraine. In 1911 there
were 2974 of all categories with 3123 male and 2586
female teachers. The curriculum in these schools
may well be a good one in respect to all ordinary
matters, but the great purpose of the schools has
been to ensure domination and Germanization. To
influence the children, to make them forget that
their land was ever a French province, has been the
supreme object of the German authorities.
I referred in a another chapter * to the obstacles
placed in the way of pupils desirous of learning the
French language. Many parents, however, steadily
strive to undermine the Teutonic influence. Although
French may not be spoken currently it is often taught
and used secretly at home, where, in the lamplight
during the long winter evenings, tales of the days
when Alsace-Lorraine was part of France are often
told. One must therefore only accept with several
grains of salt the official statistics, which state that in
1910 1,634,260 persons spoke German exclusively,
and that the French-speaking population was limited
to 204,262. Many more would have spoken French
openly had they only dared. So zealous have the
* See p. 222, ante.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 275
authorities always been to promote Germanization by
educational means that more than half of the customs
revenue and of the proceeds of other indirect taxes
has been assigned to the schools.
The names of the officials of one and another
category fill page after page of the Staatshandbuch for
1914. There is almost no end to them, and un-
doubtedly many are not only officials but spies as
well, who watch sedulously for any signs of dis-
affection. Mr. H. J. Cowell, of the Social and Political
Education League, mentioned in an interesting lecture
delivered by him during the present war, and after-
wards printed in pamphlet form,* that Germany had
done everything to keep Alsace-Lorraine in remem-
brance that she was a conquered country ; and he
quoted the following pertinent remarks emanating
from an Alsatian : "I went to the tribunal for some
matters in which I was concerned. My judges hail
from the Palatinate. I afterwards went to the
registrar, the custom-house, and the railway station.
The registrar is a Pomeranian, at the custom-house
there is a Wurttemberger, and at the station a Saxon.
I buy a stamp for a letter. Who is behind the little
window at the post office ? A Prussian. I should
like to complain about these Germans occupying all
our positions. But what would be the use ? The
editor of the local newspaper is a Westphalian.
These people not only occupy the best positions, but
dispose, in their own way, of all the vacancies in a
country where I was born and bred, and where my
family has lived for many centuries."
At the outset the German rulers had an extremely
difficult time of it, on which account they built no
fewer than seventy-six new prisons for the accommo-
* Published, with an introduction by M. Roudolphi, by the Ligue patrio-
tique des Alsaciens-Lorrains, 18 Green Street, W.C.
276 THE TRUE STORY OF
dation of malcontents. As was previously stated, the
administration was originally in the hands of Prince
Bismarck, the first fundamental laws regulating
the conditions of Government being voted by the
Reichstag in June 1871, June 1872, and June 1873.
The German Chancellor at first placed his kinsman,
Bismarck-Bohlen, and afterwards a certain Dr. von
Moeller, in charge of the immediate executive ; con-
cerning himself mainly with questions of policy and
leaving matters of detail to his delegates. The first
municipal councils elected under the German regime
were altogether pro-French in their tendencies. One
day M. Lauth, who was elected Mayor of Strasburg,
remarked to the German Prefect, a man named
Ernsthausen, that he hoped he would ultimately
become French again. Ernsthausen naturally re-
peated those imprudent words to Moeller, who at
once dismissed Lauth from his office and appointed
Herr Bach, director of the German police, to discharge
the mayoral duties. In September 1872 the Order of
Freemasons was suppressed throughout the annexed
territory, on the ground that it might favour inter-
course and conspiracy with France. Moeller treated
the inhabitants, not as equals nor even as vassals, but
absolutely as serfs. When some people, imagining
that a comparatively short sojourn in France would
settle the question of their nationality, ventured to
return to their native land, they were promptly
arrested, cast into prison, and declared nolens volens
to be German subjects. The whole judicial system
was altered, German enactments replacing the French
Code. However, though the German language at
once became obligatory for all such public bodies as
municipal councils, French was tolerated on the part
of advocates in the law courts until 1888. On the
ALSACE-LORRAINE 277
mark being substituted for the franc as the current
standard, the price of virtually everything was
increased by 20 per cent. The territory was handed
over by France free of all indebtedness, but eight
years later there was a debt equivalent to 2 per head
of the population.
The Constitution of the German Empire was
introduced into Alsace-Lorraine in January 1874,
and the inhabitants were privileged to elect fifteen
deputies to the Reichstag. Differences of opinion
on the great question of the day then unfortu-
nately declared themselves. Bishop Raess of Stras-
burg, whose bombarded cathedral had been repaired
at a cost of over 20,000 derived from the
French indemnity, virtually went over to the Ger-
mans, and his secession entailed that of a number
of the Catholic clergy, whose influence over their
parishioners was very great. Raess, in his zeal
for his Church, unwittingly served Bismarck's pur-
poses. The attitude assumed by him and his clergy
prevented the Alsatian-Lorrainers from showing a
united front at the first elections. Roman Catholic,
or rather Ultramontane, influence triumphed in several
electoral divisions, and the very first time the new
deputies attended the Reichstag their differences
became painfully manifest. The opponents of Bishop
Raess submitted a motion to the effect that the
Treaty of Frankfort having been concluded without
the sanction of the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine, the
opinions of the latter ought to be ascertained. The
same deputies also moved that they should be allowed
to address the assembly in the French tongue, as
several of them knew no German. Bismarck replied
that in the German Parliament he knew no other
language than German, whereupon a Protestant
278 THE TRUE STORY OF
Alsatian deputy named Teutsch delivered a speech in
that vernacular. He was. of course, violently inter-
rupted when in regard to the annexation he accused
Germany of having overstepped the limits by which a
civilized nation should have been bound, and Forcken-
beck, the President, called him to order. Nevertheless
he succeeded in expressing his feelings of devotion to
France. Bishop Raess spoke next, and referring to
the treaty of Frankfort declared for himself and his
Alsatian and Lorrainer coreligionists that they did
not question the treaty's validity.
It was a pitiful exhibition. The real motive of
the Bishop's unpatriotic attitude must be sought in
the position of the Papacy at that time. It had lost
its territorial sovereignty by the Italian occupation
of Rome, and the zealots of the Roman Catholic
world were in a great state of indignation. The
French Clericalists wished to force France to make
war on Italy in order to restore the Temporal Power.
There was also unrest on this question in Catholic
parts of Germany, whilst the Protestants there
denounced many Catholic institutions and religious
orders for their subserviency to the Pope, \vho, in an
allocution to the College of Cardinals in 1872, had
personally charged the Emperor and his Government
with " savage persecutions and secret machinations
against the Church." All this led up to the Falk
laws and the great Kulturkampf between the Vatican
and the German Chancellor ; and Raess, who was a
prelate of an extremely Ultramontane type, showed
far more concern about the interests of his Church
than about those of his native land. In fact it is not
too much to say that he sacrificed the interests of
Alsace-Lorraine in order that he might the more
easily join hands with the German Clericalists. The
,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 279
ishop, however, did not have everything his own
way. On the day after his declaration respecting the
Frankfort treaty, a Catholic, though not an Ultra-
montane, deputy of the annexed provinces, named
Pouget, who had been unable to attend the first
debate, rose in the Reichstag and said : "I am told
that in recognizing the validity of the Treaty of
Frankfort, Bishop Raess yesterday took upon himself
to speak in the name of his coreligionists of Alsace
and Lorraine. If he really did so I am constrained
to say that the Bishop spoke in his own name, and
not in that of other Roman Catholic deputies for
Alsace-Lorraine." The Bishop was greatly mortified
by that well-deserved rebuke.
At that period the Reichstag debates respecting
the annexed provinces were often full of interest.
The motions which the Alsatian and Lorrainer
deputies submitted were invariably rejected, securing
as a rule only the support of the Danish, the Polish,
and some of the Socialist representatives. Bismarck
often intervened in the discussions, and, stung by the
remarks of those who spoke for the populations
brought under his domination, he did not hesitate to
jeer and sneer at them. On one occasion, while
referring to the Franco-German War, he reproached
them for " having taken part in the infamous and
sinful attack upon Germany." At another moment
he congratulated them on having escaped from French
rule and from " the agreeable prospect of taking
voyages to the penal settlements of Lambessa and
New Caledonia." He also remarked that as the
Alsatians had always supplied the French army with
a disproportionately large quota of soldiers and non-
commissioned officers, it followed that in the many
wars between the two countries the Germans had
280 THE TRUE STORY OF
been obliged to fight them as well as the other subjects
of the Paris Government. " But," he added, " we
are now glad to have these good soldiers on our side,
and we shall certainly do all in our power to keep
them there." At another time, in a debate on the
endowment of the University of Strasburg (November
1874) the Chancellor expressed himself as follows :
The question before us concerns the interests of the Empire. It is not
a question of Alsace-Lorraine. The university is to serve Imperial purposes.
In the well-fought war, in which we had to defend our existence, we conquered
the provinces for the Empire. It was not for the interests of Alsace-Lorraine
that our soldiers shed their blood. We take our stand upon the interests
of the Empire and the Imperial policy. Upon those grounds Alsace-Lorraine
was annexed, and not for the sake of Alsace-Lorraine's ecclesiastical interests.*
In the Empire we act from other motives than those of the gentlemen whose
past would lead them back to Paris and whose present conducts them to
Rome. We have to think of the Empire. . . . My first views respecting an
Alsace-Lorraine parliament were too sanguine. . . . They have been modified
by what I have seen of the attitude of the Alsatian-Lorrainer deputies here.
Such a parliament would lead to constant agitation and perhaps endanger
the maintenance of peace.
Did ever statesman acknowledge more candidly,
more bluntly, more brutally, that he did not care a
rap for the interests or aspirations of those whom he
had enthralled ?
The representative institutions which were after-
wards set up in the annexed provinces were mere
shams and mockeries destitute of all authority.
Nothing approaching the real nature of a Parliament
existed before the Constitution granted in 1911, and
I will presently explain how extremely limited were
the powers which that Constitution conferred on the
Alsatians and Lorrainers. Bismarck, in the speech
which I have just quoted, referred to the maintenance
of peace. This was often endangered during ensuing
* The reference to " ecclesiastical interests," and the ensuing sentence
also, were thrusts at Bishop Raess. The latter, by the way, was opposed
to the university, fearing that by the instruction imparted at it many sheep
might escape from his fold. He at least wished to prevent a large endowment.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 281
years. For a long time the spirit of revanche was
undoubtedly strong in France, but on various occasions
it was not this but the German Chancellor's provoca-
tive policy and the agitations engineered in Germany
by his reptile Press that seemed likely to bring about
another war. Whilst the Ultramontane agitation in
France in favour of the restoration of the Temporal
Power was certainly of a nature to lead to hostilities
against Italy, and through Italy against the German
Empire, the war scare of 1875 was absolutely Bis-
marck's work. He was amazed at the rapid recovery
of France from her disasters, and fearing lest, in time,
she should endeavour to win back Alsace-Lorraine,
he resolved to crush her yet once more.
He took as his pretext the reorganization of the
French army, which included the division of each
infantry regiment into four instead of three battalions.
As a matter of fact there was no increase in the
effective beyond the appointment of such regimental
officers as were necessary for an additional battalion.
The total strength of each regiment remained the
same as before. But Bismarck and Moltke professed
to be much alarmed and began to prepare for another
war, after which, anticipating " victory as usual,"
they intended to demand a further cession of territory
(notably Belfort) and an indemnity of 400 millions
sterling. The plot fortunately came to the knowledge
of Marshal MacMahon's Government, and General
Le Flo, then French Ambassador at Petrograd, laid
everything before the Russian Emperor, Alexander II.
At the same time M. Gavard, charge d'affaires in
London, submitted the facts to our Foreign Secretary,
the Lord Derby of those days. In the result, whatever
pro-German proclivities then existed in Great Britain,
Derby took up the French cause, and our Government
282 THE TRUE STORY OF
and that of Russia made it known that on France
declaring her peaceful intentions they would con-
jointly interfere to prevent the contemplated war.
This was Bismarck's first serious defeat in the sphere
of foreign politics, and he revenged himself for it by
precipitating the Russo-Turkish War, and by siding
against Russia at the famous Congress of Berlin.
On the other hand, at a somewhat later period, the
maintenance of peace certainly incurred some danger
from the periodical demonstrations of the French
League of Patriots, founded by the French Kipling,
the soldier-poet, Paul Deroulede. This league w r as
undoubtedly imbued with the revanche spirit, and
acted at times in open defiance of Gambetta's wise
advice on that subject : " Keep it always in mind,
but never speak of it " (Pensez y toujours, mais rfen
parlez jamais). When one recalls, however, the
manner in which Alsace-Lorraine was torn from
France, and the many episodes of the time when it
was French territory, one can well understand not
only the memory of the loss surviving, but also the
difficulty of restraining oneself from speaking of it.*
It is related that after Stanley found Livingstone, the
latter inquired what had happened in Europe of
recent years. Stanley told him of the Franco-German
War, the indemnity paid by France, and the loss
of Alsace-Lorraine. " Ah ! " Livingstone replied,
" France will soon cease mourning over the five
milliards of money, but she will never forget those
two provinces ! "
In 1887, when General Boulanger was French
Minister of War, a serious crisis in the relations of
France and Germany occurred. Boulanger made
various imprudent speeches and lent himself to some
of the demonstrations of the League of Patriots,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 283
Thereupon the German Press denounced him as a
danger to peace, and the Imperial Government began
to move troops hither and thither in Alsace-Lorraine,
doing this with so much fuss and publicity that it
seemed as if a direct warning to France were intended.
The French Prime Minister was then M. Rene Goblet,
a Radical politician, and the Minister for Foreign
Affairs was M. Leopold Flourens. Both were sin-
cerely desirous of maintaining peace. Nevertheless
there was a panic on the Paris Bourse and a very sharp
drop in the quotations for Rentes. The Chambers
voted considerable additional credits for the army
and the navy, and Goblet refused to make a pacific
declaration, a refusal which was perhaps a mistake
on his part. However, he took up the position that
his opinions were perfectly well known, and that no
declaration was necessary. Yet at the same time
he told Boulanger not to dispatch any additional
troops to the frontier, as the general wished to do,
by way of answering the German military movements
in Alsace. Moreover, Ferdinand de Lesseps, of Suez
Canal fame, went on a semi-official mission to Berlin,
and the atmosphere appeared to clear. But a frontier
incident fraught with serious possibilities suddenly
occurred. The German authorities suspected a French
commissary of police named Schnaebele, attached to
the railway station of Pagny-sur-Moselle, of inter-
course with some Lorrainer malcontents, and resolved
to arrest him should he ever cross the frontier. He
did so in response to a request from a German police
official named Gautsch, who pretended that he wished
to confer with him respecting some of the frontier
regulations. Nevertheless, on April 20, 1887, Schnae-
bele was arrested and conveyed to Metz.
As a result of this German act of provocation the
284 THE TRUE STORY OF
question of war or peace came to the front once more.
Boulanger and some of his colleagues wished to demand
an apology in a dispatch tantamount to an ultimatum.
But M. Flour ens, like a true diplomatist, scouted the
suggestion, holding that Schna^bele's arrest under such
circumstances could not possibly be maintained by
any known principle of law. In spite of this, Bou-
langer, swayed by personal ambition or incited by
enthusiastic and unthinking firebrands, tried to pre-
cipitate events by sending as secretly as possible, and
in defiance of Goblet's instructions, a number of
troops towards the frontier. Nor was that all, for he
also wrote to the Tsar, then Alexander III, or to his
War Minister, soliciting Russian help. No sooner had
he done so than he boasted of his letter, and on the
matter becoming known to M. Flourens the missive
was intercepted. Further, as it seemed probable that
the affair would leak out, Flourens hastened to ac-
quaint the German ambassador in France with all the
facts, pointing out that Boulanger alone was respon-
sible, and virtually throwing him over. Finally,
Police Commissary Schnaebele w T as released, Bismarck
stating to M. Herbette, French ambassador at Berlin,
that the arrest had been justified by the proofs he
held of Schnsebele's connivance with an Alsatian
44 traitor," but that as he had ventured on German soil
at the invitation of a German official, that invitation
was equivalent to a safe-conduct and would be re-
spected. In this wise was war between France and
Germany averted. Whether Schnsebele actually en-
gaged in any plotting is a moot point. One cannot
take Bismarck's word on such a matter. It is a fact,
however, that at the time in question, as during most
other periods, there was considerable unrest in Alsace-
Lorraine, A few months after the Schnaebele affair
ALSACE-LORRAINE 285
eight Alsatians were tried at Leipzig for high treason.
The chief charge against them was that in order to
facilitate the reunion of Alsace-Lorraine with France,
they had secretly become members of Deroulede's
League of Patriots. Some were acquitted, but one
was sentenced to two, another to five, and another to
six years' imprisonment. A little later another war
scare, caused by a German forest-keeper shooting a
French sportsman dead, and wounding another one,
in the Vosges, subsided on the German Government
paying some compensation. At a much later date
trouble, even affrays, occurred at Nancy owing to the
arrogance of some of the Germans settled in that town.
From time to time, indeed, little " incidents " arose
which might have led to hostilities but which were
adjusted. During the years more immediately pre-
ceding the Great War the chief dangers to the mainten-
ance of peace between France and Germany arose in
connexion with the Dreyfus case, the German inter-
ference in the question of Morocco, the Congo and
Cameroons frontiers, and, incidentally, the Bagdad
railway. Into those matters it is unnecessary to
enter here, for they had no connexion with the
question of Alsace-Lorraine.
Under the German rule there have been frequent
scandals in the annexed provinces. Oppression,
corruption, and debauchery have gone hand in hand
among the official and military classes. Many in-
stances are mentioned in two books " Les Scandales
allemandes en Alsace-Lorraine " (1906) and " Les
Coulisses de 1' Alsace-Lorraine " (1908) written by a
former police commissary in the German service
named Stephany. Although the evidence of an
official who has parted from his masters may be open
to some suspicion, such precise and explicit particulars
286 THE TRUE STORY OF
are given in Stephany's writings that, even if they be
somewhat highly coloured, they convey an impression
that there must be a great amount of absolute truth
in what he says the more so as many incidents
mentioned by him are of a similar nature to others
known to have occurred in Germany. Stephany's
instances of debauchery among the military caste,
from such petty " royalties " as the Prince of Schaum-
burg-Lippe down to junior lieutenants, correspond
with certain episodes of the present war.
Let me now recapitulate the chief features of the
Zabern or Saverne affair which in 1913 attracted
attention throughout the world. The town of Saverne
was garrisoned by two battalions of the 91st Infantry
Regiment, commanded by Colonel von Reuter, and
including among its officers a certain Lieutenant
Forstner, who scornfully applied the name of
" Wackes " or " Square-heads " to the Alsatian re-
cruits under him. In an address which he delivered
to them whilst warning them against deserting and
joining the French Foreign Legion, he also spoke very
offensively about the French, with whom many of the
recruits had strong sympathies. For calling his men
by the opprobrious name of " Wackes," Fortsner
underwent some slight punishment, but the affair
became generally known, and created much excitement
throughout the provinces. On some demonstrations
ensuing, Colonel von Reuter requested the head of the
local administration, an Alsatian named Mahler, to
restore order, and on Mahler declaring that he knew
of no reason for interfering with law-abiding people,
Reuter himself took action. On November 29 a
crowd having assembled before the barracks the
former palace of the Rohan Cardinals he ordered a
certain Lieutenant Schad, who that day commanded
ALSACE-LORRAINE 287
the Guard, to disperse the assemblage. Schad's men
did so with great brutality, at the same time arresting
several people, among whom were some legal officials
who had just left the court-house. These were
released, but the others were detained in the cellars of
the barracks. The public excitement increased, dis-
affection becoming so manifest that the position was
submitted to the Emperor, who was then staying at
Doriauschingen with Prince von Fiirstenberg. In the
result, the Alsatian Statthalter or Viceroy, Count von
Wedel, and his Secretary of State and Minister of the
Interior, Von Zorn-Bulach, a member of an Alsatian
family which had " ratted " to Germany, tendered
their resignations, feeling that the military party, by
overriding the civil authorities, was responsible for the
serious trouble which had arisen in many parts of the
provinces. The Kaiser, however, induced them to
withdraw their resignations ; a general was sent
to Saverne to inquire into what had occurred there,
and Reuter and Schad were afterwards court-
martialled for ordering troops to move against the
civilian population. They were ultimately acquitted
on the ground that they had kept within the pro-
visions of a Prussian law of 1820, which empowered
the military authorities to act if the civil administra-
tion should neglect to enforce order.
Meantime, however, another incident had occurred.
In the course of some field service near Saverne,
Lieutenant Forstner, while passing through a village,
cut down a lame shoemaker with whom he had a brief
altercation. This act of brutality aroused fresh
resentment. Forstner was certainly tried for hitting
and wounding a civilian, but although he was at first
sentenced to a year's imprisonment, he secured an
acquittal on appealing to a higher jurisdiction, the
288 THE TRUE STORY OF
pretext being that he had acted in " supposed self-
defence " a perfectly ridiculous plea in the circum-
stances, for the injured shoemaker was as inoffensive as
he was lame. Debates ensued in the Reichstag, where
Bethmann-Hollweg, the Chancellor, declared that the
regiment commanded by Reuter had been removed
from Saverne and that the law of 1820 had been
abolished for Alsace-Lorraine. Nevertheless, the
Reichstag passed a vote of censure by no fewer than
293 to 54 votes taking that course as it rightly
apprehended that the marked disaffection in the
provinces could only be quieted by reproving the
military element, to whose overbearing attitude, not
only at Saverne but in many other localities also,
the popular resentment was largely due. The German
Socialists afterwards took up some of the grievances
of the Alsatians and Lorrainers, but on a motion to
reduce the Chancellor's salary they naturally incurred
defeat. However, Herren Wedel and Zorn-Bulach
again resigned their offices and were replaced, the
former as Statthalter by Dr. von Dallwitz, and the
second as Secretary of State and Minister of the
Interior by Count von Rcedern.
By a constitution which came into force in 1911
Alsace-Lorraine was granted the privilege of sending
three representatives to the German Federal Council.
Sovereign rights remained vested in the Emperor,
who was to appoint and recall, at pleasure, a Statt-
halter or Viceroy. All local laws were to emanate
from the Crown exclusively, but were to secure the
assent of a Diet or Landtag formed of two chambers.
The Upper Chamber was to be composed of five rep-
resentatives of the religious communities, the pre-
siding judge of the Supreme Court of Colmar, a
representative of Strasburg University, four members
.
ALSACE-LORRAINE 289
presenting the towns of Metz, Strasburg, Colmar,
and Mulhouse, various representatives of Chambers of
Commerce and Agricultural Councils, etc., but, in
addition to the foregoing, and in order to ensure a
permanent government majority, a score of members
were to be nominated by the Kaiser. One and all
were to retain their positions for five years. The
Lower Chamber was to be elected by direct suffrage,
and on first assembling in 1911 it comprised twenty
members of the Roman Catholic party, thirteen
particularist Lorrainers, ten Liberal Democrats, and
eleven Socialists. In the Staatshandbuch for 1914
I find a dozen French names among the members
of these Chambers. For instance, the second Vice-
President of the upper one was Dr. Gregoire, and the
first Vice-President of the lower one, M. Labroise.
But a good many members with Germanic names
were undoubtedly sound patriots. As the initiative
of law-making rested with the Statthalter, acting for
the Emperor, the powers of the so-called Landtag
of Alsace-Lorraine were necessarily very limited, and
it is quite impossible to describe such a regime as one
of self-government.
The administration set up by the new Constitution
comprised four principal departments, the Interior ;
Justice and Religion ; Finance, Commerce, and Im-
perial Domains ; and Agriculture and Labour. In
1914 the Kaiserlicher Statthalter was still Dr. von
Dallwitz,* and Count von Rcedern was Secretary of
State and Minister of the Interior. During the year
ending March 31, 1917, the total revenue of the
* Before him the successive Governors of Alsace-Lorraine were Field-
Marshal von Manteuffel (October 1879), Prince Clovis von Hohenlohe (1885),
Prince von Hohenlohe-Langenburg (October 1894), and the Count von Wedel
mentioned in connexion with the Saverne affair.
290 THE TRUE STORY OF
provinces was 4,126,615. At the last census
(1910) the population included 1,428,343 Catholics,
408,274 Protestants, 3868 members of other Christian
denominations, and 30,483 Jews. When the present
Great War began the garrison was composed of over
80,000 men. It included Badeners, Saxons, Silesians,
and Alsatian detachments of the 14th and 15th Army
Corps, under General von Deimling, whose chief of
staff was Count von Waldersee. At Metz there was
the 16th Army Corps under General von Mudra, and
there were also some men of the 21st Corps at Sarre-
bruck and Sarrebourg. Apart from the last named,
the garrison included nine brigades of infantry, five
brigades of cavalry, and seven artillery regiments.
Thus a strong force (double that of 1880) was kept
in the provinces, far less from any fear of sudden
French aggression than in order to impose the German
will on a people which obeyed it with regret.
A mock constitution and a formidable garrison,
such before this war was the final German answer to
all the bitter discontent so long prevailing in Alsace-
Lorraine. M. Roudolphi, in a letter to which I have
directed attention,* rightly stated that " in 1887,
after sixteen years of the new regime, the progress of
the conquerors having been absolutely negative, a
reign of terror began, which has not its equal in the
annals of the nineteenth century. Every society,
artistic, sporting, and even scientific, suspected of
French leanings was dissolved, prosecutions for high
treason and similar offences were as numerous as the
pebbles on the shore, and communication with France
was rendered practically impossible. This era, the
so-called ' stillness of the dead,' when eyery voice
* See foot-note on p. 273, ante,
ALSACE-LORRAINE 291
was silenced, and every movement watched by the
secret police, lasted for fifteen long years."
I will add little to this long narrative in which I
have endeavoured to give a sketch of many topo-
graphical, historical, racial, linguistic, and other
matters pertaining to Alsace-Lorraine. The country
is virtually terra incognita to most British readers,
and I shall feel amply rewarded for my labours if I
succeed in making more than its name known to them.
During the present war the French have won back a
small portion of the annexed land by force of arms,
but it must be restored to them in its entirety. That
is the desire of virtually all the inhabitants of the old
stock, and of their kith and kin wiio live far away in
exile. There can be no compromise with Germany
on this question. France will accept none. Un-
happily a small number of people among us still seem
desirous of accepting an inconclusive peace. Selfishly
thinking only of themselves, they are ready to sacrifice
the highest interests of posterity, and those, also,
of our comrades in arms. There are some people who,
whilst admitting that the German occupation of
Belgium is a pistol pointed at the head of Britain,
fail, apparently, to realize that the German occupation
of Alsace-Lorraine has been a pistol pointed at the
head of France for nearly half a century. Further,
there are even those it cannot be gainsaid who
would callously leave France in the lurch with respect
to her most important, her paramount claim. This
must not be. Should Great Britain desert her noble
and valiant ally the direst consequences would follow.
I, for one, am fully convinced that she will never do so,
but will continue fighting until Alsace-Lorraine, like
other lands, shall have been finally and fully delivered
from the odious yoke of the modern Hun,
APPENDIX A
PLACE-NAMES DIFFERING IN FRENCH
AND GERMAN
BELOW will be found two lists of Alsatian and Lorrainer place-
names which have been changed since the annexation in 1871.
In some instances the alterations have been slight, but in some
others the difference is great. The French terminals ville and
wilier (from the Latin villa and villare) have become weiler in
German. Bourg also has, not unnaturally, been changed to
burg. It is not claimed that the following lists are complete,
nevertheless they may prove useful for the identification of some
of the localities mentioned. In the first list the French and
in the second the German names are given in the first column
alphabetically, their equivalents appearing in the second one.
French German
Alsace Elsass
Aubure Altweier
Ban de la Roche Steinthal
Belmagny Bernetzweiler
Bischwiller Bitschweiler
Bitche Bitsch
Bonhomme, Le Diedolshausen
Boulay Bolchen
Bouxwiller Buchsweiler
Broque, La Vorbruck
Cernay Sennheim
Ch&teau-Salins Salzburg
Chatenois Kestenholz
Chavannes-sur-1'Etang Schaffnat-am-Weiher
Courtavon Ottendorf
Dabo Dagsburg
Eteimbes Welschensteinbach
Faulquemont Falkenberg
293
294
French
Fenestrange
Ferrette
Fouday
Guebwiller
Haguenau
Huningue
Levoncourt
Liepvre and Lievre
Longueville
Lorquin
Lorraine
Main-du-Prince, La
Marmoutier
Massevaux
Montreux
Mulhouse
Neubois
Neuf-Brisach
Obernai
Orbey
Petite-Pierre, La
Phalsbourg
Porcelette
Poiiltroie, La
Ribeaupierre
Ribeauville
Riquewihr
Romagny
Rouffach
Saint-Hippolyte
Saint-Louis
Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines
Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines
Sainte-Odile
Sarralbe
Sarreguemines
Sarre, the
Saverne
Schlestadt
Soultz-les-Bains
Soultz-sous-Forets
Thionville
APPENDIX A
German
Finstingen
Pfirt
Urbach
Gebweiler
Hagenau
Huningen
Luffendorf
Leberau
Longeville
Lorehingen
Lothringen
Herzogshand
Maursmiinster
Masmiinster
Miinsterol
Miilhausen
Gereuth
Neu Breisach
Oberehnheim
Urbeis
Liitzelstein
Pfalzburg
Porselt
Schmerlach
Rappoltstein
Rappoltsweiler *
Reichenweier
Willern
Rufach and Ruffach
Sankt Pilt
Sankt Ludwig
Sankt Kreuz im Leberthal
Markirch
Odilienberg
Saaralben
Saargemiind
Saar
Zabern
Schlettstadt
Sulzbad
Sulz-unterm-Walde
Diedenhofen
Rapperschweir in the local dialect.
APPENDIX A
295
French
Trois-Fontaines
Val-de-Ville
Valdieu
Vancelle, La
Ville
Vosges, the
Wasselonne
Wesserling
Wihr-au-Val
Wissembourg
Xouaxange
German
Dreibrtinnen
Weilerthal
Gottesthal
Wanzel
Weiler
Wasigen and Wasgenwald
Wasselnheim
Hiisseren
Weier im Thai
Weissenburg
Schweizingen
II
German
Altweier
Bcrnetzweiler
Bitsch
Bitschweiler
Bolchen
Buchsweiler
Dagsburg
Diedenhofen
Diedolshausen
Dreibrunnen
Elsass
Falkenberg
Finstingen
Gebweiler
Gereuth
Gottesthal
Hagenau
Hcrzogshand
Huningen
Hiisseren
Kestenholz
Leberau
Lorchingen
Lothringen
Luffendorf
Ltitzclstein
Markirch
French
Aubure
Belmagny
Bitche
Bischwiller
Boulay
Bouxwiller
Dabo
Thionville
Le Bonhomme
Trois-Fontaines
Alsace
Faulquemont
Fenestrange
Guebwiller
Neubois
Valdieu
Haguenau
La Main-du-Prince
Huningue
Wesserling
Chatenois
Liepvre and Lievre
Lorquin
Lorraine
Levoncourt
La Petite-Pierre
Sainte-Marie-aux-Min es
296
APPENDIX A
German
Masmiinster
Maursmiinster
Mulhauscn
Miinsterol
Neu Breisach
Oberenheim
Odilienberg
Ottendorf
Pfalzburg
Pfirt
Porselt
Rappoltstein
Rappoltsweiler
Reichenweier
Rufach and Ruffach
Saar
Saargemiind
Salzburg
Sankt Kreuz im Leberthal
Sankt Ludwig
Sankt Pilt
Schaffnat-am-Weiher
Schlettstadt
Schmerlach
Schweizingen
Sennheim
Steinthal
Sulzbad
Sulz-unterm-Walde
Urbach
Urbeis
Vorbriick
Wanzel
Wasigen and Wasgenwald
Wasselnheim
Weier im Thai
Weilerthal
Weissenburg
Welschensteinbach
Willern
Zabern
French
Massevaux
Marmoutier
Mulhouse
Montreux
Neuf-Brisach
Obernai
Sainte-Odile
Courtavon
Phalsbourg
Ferrette
Porcelette
Ribeaupierre
Ribeauville
Riquewihr
Rouffach
Sarre
Sarreguemines
Chateau-Sal ins
Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines
Saint-Louis
Saint-Hippolyte
Chavannes-sur-1'Etang
Schlestadt
La Poultroie
Xouaxange
Cernay
Ban de la Roche
Soultz-les-Bains
Soultz-sous-Forets
Fouday
Orbey
La Broque
Varicelle
Vosges, the
Wasselonne
Wihr-au-Val
Val-de-Ville
Wissembourg
Eteimbes
Romagny
Saverne
APPENDIX B
STRASBURG UNITED TO FRANCE
Articles proposed by the Prcetors, Consuls, and Magistrate of the
Town of Strasburg, the 30th September, 1681.*
WE, Francois Michel de [sic] Tellier, Marquis of Louvois,
Secretary of State and of his Majesty's Commandments, and
Joseph de Fonts, Baron of Montclar, Lieutenant-General in the
Armies of the King, commanding for his Majesty in Alsace, by
virtue of the power conferred upon us by his Majesty to receive
the town of Strasburg into obedience under him, have set down
the annotations [apostilles] inscribed below, whereof we promise
to supply his Majesty's Ratification, and to hand it to the Magis-
trate of Strasburg, between now and ten days' time.
I. The town of Strasburg, following the example of Mr.
[sic] the Bishop of Strasburg, the Count of Hanau, the Lord of
Fleckenstein, and the nobility of Lower Alsace, recognizes his
Most Christian Majesty as its Sovereign Lord and Protector.
Annotation. The King receives the town and all its depen-
dencies under his Royal protection.
II. His Majesty shall confirm all the ancient privileges,
rights, statutes, and customs of the town of Strasburg, ecclesias-
tical as well as political, conformably with the Treaty of Peace
of Westphalia, confirmed by that of Nimeguen.
Annotation. Granted.
III. His Majesty shall allow the free exercise of Religion,
as has been the case from the year 1624 until now, with possession
of all churches and schools, and will not allow anybody what-
soever to raise any pretensions either to ecclesiastical property
or to any foundations or convents that is to say, the Abbey of
Saint-Etienne, the Chapter of Saint-Thomas, Saint-Marc, Saint-
Guillaume, the Tous-Saints, and all others included or not
* " Articles proposez par les Preteurs, Consuls et Magistral de la Villede
Strasbourg, le 30 Septembre, 1681." A Paris, au Bureau d'Adresse, aux
Galeries du Louvre. MDCLXXXI. Avec Privilege du Roy.
298 APPENDIX B
included [within the town ?], but shall for all time preserve^them
to the town and its inhabitants.
Annotation. Granted in respect to the enjoyment of all that
pertains to ecclesiastical property, in accordance with the stipu-
lations of the Treaty of Mtinster, with this reserve, that the
fabric of the Church of Our Lady, formerly called the Dom
(cathedral), shall be restored to the Catholics ; notwithstanding
which his Majesty approves that they [the Protestants] shall
make use of the bells of the said church for all purposes heretofore
customary, except only that of ringing them to prayers.
IV. His Majesty shall leave the Magistrature in its present
state, with all its rights, including the free election of its colleges,
namely, that of the Thirteen, that of the Fifteen, and that of the
Twenty-One, together with the Large and Small Senates, the
Echevins, the officers of the town and the Chancellery, the eccle-
siastical convents, the University with all its doctors, professors,
and students of whatever category they be, the [trade or pro-
fessional] college, classifications, and masterships all as they
are now, together with the [present] Civil and Criminal Juris-
dictions.
Annotation. Granted, with the reserve that in all lawsuits
in which the capital amount [sued for] shall exceed one thousand
limes of France [cir. 40] an appeal to the Council of Brisach
shall be allowed, without, however, the appeal suspending the
execution of the judgment which may have been delivered by
the Magistrate [of Strasburg] should no sum exceeding two
thousand limes of France [cir. 80] be in question.
V. His Majesty also grants to the town that all its revenues,
taxes, [land] tolls, bridge-tolls, commercial rights, and customs
\douane] shall be preserved to it, with all liberty to enjoy the
same as heretofore, together with the free disposal of the Pfen-
ningthurn and the Mint, and the magazines [stores] of cannon,
munitions, and weapons, both those which are in the Arsenal and
those which are on the ramparts and in the houses of burgesses,
together with the magazines [stores] of grain, timber, coal, tallow,
and all others, the bells [of the town], and also the Archives
with the documents and papers of whatever nature they be.
Annotation. Granted, with the reserve that the cannon,
munitions of war, and arms in the public stores shall be placed
in the power of his Majesty's officers, and as regards the weapons
belonging to private people, that they shall be deposited at
the town hall in a room whereof the Magistrate shall keep the
key.
APPENDIX B 299
VI. All the burgesses shall remain exempt from all taxes and
other payments. His Majesty shall leave all imposts, ordinary
or extraordinary, to the town for its maintenance.
Annotation. Granted.
VII. His Majesty shall leave to the town and citizens of
Strasburg the free enjoyment of the bridge over the Rhine and
of all the towns, boitrgs, villages, and lands that belong to them,
and will graciously grant the town Letters of Respite against all
creditors, whether in the Empire or elsewhere.
Annotation. Granted.
VIII. His Majesty also grants an Amnesty for all the past,
both to public and to private persons without any exception,
and will include in it the Prince Palatine de Veldence [sic], the
Count of Nassau, the Resident of his Imperial Majesty, all the
Hostels [sic], the Bruderhoff, with their officers, houses, and
appurtenances.
Annotation. Granted.
IX. It shall be allowable for the town to erect barracks to
lodge the troops which may be in garrison.
Annotation. Granted.
X. The King's troops shall enter the town to-day, September
30, 1681, at four o'clock in the afternoon.
Done at Illkirch, this 10 September 1681.
Signed : De Louvois,
Joseph de Ponts, Baron de Montclar.
Jean George de Zedlitz, Esquire and Praetor
Dominique Dietrich Johann Leonard Froreisen
Johann Philippe Schmidt Daniel Richshoff er Jonas
Storr J. Joachim Franz Christoffle Gtinzer.
Various points arising out of the above convention have been
discussed in an earlier part of this volume (pp. 96 to 98, ante),
and little need be added here. The description of Louvois in
the preamble as de Tellier is perhaps merely a slip. His real
patronymic was Le Tellier, but he may have substituted de for
le, or a secretary may have done so on the ground that de was
the customary particle among members of the nobility. The
German Count of Hanau and the Lord of Flecken stein referred to
in Clause I probably held fiefs in Alsace. The Pfenningthurn
which is mentioned in Clause V may possibly have been some
300 APPENDIX B
tower where certain dues or tolls were levied. Some parts of
Clause VIII are rather obscure. The " Prince Palatine de Vel-
dence " may have been the Palatine of the Rhine of that period,
but the words de Veldence are puzzling. There is, however, a
small place called Veldenz, near Berncastel in the Moselle wine
country, and some Palatine may have been known by the name
of the Veldenz lordship. According to "L'Art de verifier les
Dates" there certainly was an independent House of Veldenz
in early times. The Count of Nassau who is mentioned may
well have been William of Orange, afterwards our William III.
He was a confirmed enemy of Louis XIV, and may have urged
Strasburg to maintain its independence and even have promised
assistance to that effect. The Bruderhoff was possibly an associa-
tion. It is more difficult to suggest an explanation of the ex-
pression "all the Hostels." Hostels, however, must have
signified mansions (hotels), not asylums or inns, and the reference
was possibly to all the nobles dwelling in abodes of this descrip-
tion. Clause IX may be explained by the town's desire to
prevent the garrison from being billeted on the inhabitants.
In Clause X will be found the words, " to-day, September 30,"
whereas immediately afterwards one reads, " Done at Illkirch
this 10 September." This seeming contradiction may be ac-
counted for by assuming that the date on which the French
troops were to enter Strasburg was left blank when the Proposals
were originally drafted, and inserted in the document when
everything had been finally agreed upon.
INDEX
Note. In the following references the annexed territory of Alsace-
Lorraine is generally designated by the initials A.-L. Place-names
are usually given in their French forms, as in the body of the book,
but the German forms will be found in Appendix A. Gallo-
Roman names of localities, which changed at different periods
(for instance, Brigamagus became Brocomagus) are not indexed,
but many of them will be found in chapter vii, where place-names
are discussed.
ABOUT, EDMOND, 34
Academic Stanislas, 180
Accession gifts in Lorraine, 165
Adalric, D. of Alsace, 36
Adolphus of Nassau, Emp., 74
Adultery, penalties for, 160
Aetius, 64
Agriculture in Lorraine, 176. See
also Scarcity
Alans, the, 62, 63
Albert I, Emp., 78 ; of Alsace, D. of
Lorraine, 146; Archduke, 230;
the Rich, 88
Alemanni, the, 61 et seq., 64, 65
Alexander II of Russia, 281 ; III, 284
Alsace, Albert and Gerard of, 146,
147; dukes of, 65, 83, 89
Alsace, generally, 9, 10 et seq. ; towns
and noted spots in, 25 et seq. ; its
history to the Treaty of West-
phalia, 55 et seq. ; abandoned by
the Romans, 62 ; from Treaty of
Westphalia onward, 91 et seq.
See also Bourbons, Caesar,
Cholera, Council, Fruit, Germans,
Hapsburgs, Latin, Man, Minstrels,
Pagans, Plague, Protestants, Rail-
ways, Rebellions, Reformation,
Rivers, Roads, Russia, Scarcity.
Storks, Vosges, Wines
Alsace-Lorraine (annexed territory)
area, 9 ; divisions of, 10, 25, 26 ;
elections in, 264 ; emigration from,
268 et seq. ; German garrison in,
290 ; German officials in, 270, 275 ;
population, 9, 271, 290 ; protests
against annexation, 264 et seq. ;
religions in, 290 ; revenue of, 290 ;
under the Germans generally, 267
et seq. See also Beer, Canals,
Catholic, Celts, Coal, Conscrip-
tion, Constitution, Crops, Deputies,
Dialects, Education, Emigration,
Forests, Freemasons, French, Fruit,
Germans, Industries, Iron, Jews,
Landtag, Language, Latin, Live
stock, Manufactures, Place-names,
Prisons, Railways, Rivers, Sieges,
Textiles, Tobacco, Vosges, Welsch,
Zones
Alsatia, Whitefriars, 71
Alsatians, the, their characteristics,
98, 106, 107, 198 et seq.; cos-
tumes, 200 ; famous men, 224 et
seq. ; their attachment to France,
226 ; penalized for joining the
French army, 262 ; as German
conscripts, 270, 271 ; their first
deputies in the Reichstag, 277
el seq.
301
302
INDEX
Alt Breisach, 60, 214, 248
Altkirch, 45
Andlau, 37
Anjou, its rulers, 147, 148
Anna Ivanovna, Empress, 168
Annexation of A.-L., 205, 229, 264
el seq.
Anthony, D. of Lorraine, 34, 81, 149
Apponyi, Ct., 126
Apreraont, Mile, d', 155
Argensons, the d', 107
Ariovistus, 57 et seq., 214
Armagnacs in Alsace, 79
Arminius, 59
Army recruits in Lorraine, 177, 189
Arnoul or Arnulf, Emp., 144
Ars-sur-Moselle, 21, 261
Articles for the union of Strasburg,
96 et seq., 297 et seq.
Attila, 64, 145, 218
Augsburg League, 104. See also
Treaties
Augustus, Emp., 59
Augustus II of Saxony, 167 ; III,
167, 168
Aurelian, Emp., 61
Austrasia, 65, 173
Austria threatens to seize Alsace,
126; in '70, 230
BACCARAT, glass-works, 162, 186, 260
Bach, Herr, 276
Balfour of Burleigh, Lord, 272
Ballons of the Vosges, 14
Ban de la Roche, 35, 36, 109
Baner, Gl. J. G., 84
Bar, county, later duchy, 145, 147, 172
Baraguey d'Hilliers, Ml., 244, 252
Barr, town, 37, 38, 259
Barras, Paul de, 114
Bartholdi, F. A., 30, 39, 258
Basle, 13, 60, 80, 95, 96, 111, 134
Baum, pastor, 138
Bavaria annexes Landau region, 191,
193, 194
Bazaine, Achille, Ml., 48, 234, 235,
252 to 255
Beauharnais, Gl. Alex, de, 111
Beer in A,-L, and Bavaria, 20
Belfort, 10, 13, 121 et seq., 208, 255,
269; sieges of , 256 to 258
Belgium, the neutrality of, 5 to 8,
236, 291
Belle-Isle, Ml. de, 49
Benedetti, Ct., 6, 7
Bernard of Saxe- Weimar, 83
Besangon, 58, 111
Bethmann-Hollweg, Dr. v., 288
Beyer, Gl. v., 237
Bicentenary of Alsatian union with
France, 128
Biedermann, Prof., 127
Bischer, a veteran, 262
Bishops, of Lower Lorraine, 146.
See also Metz and Strasburg
Bishoprics,the Three, 47, 149, 151, 163
Bismarck, Pr. v., 5 to 8, 130, 134,
196, 206, 210, 228 to 230, 238,
252, 258, 267 et seq. t 276, 277, 279
to 282, 284
Bismarck-Bohlen, Ct. v., 276
Bitche, 52, 53, 177, 231, 232; its
siege in '70, 248 et seq.
Blanc, Louis, 265, 266
Blasphemy, penalties for, 160, 161
Boeck, R., 138, 205, 206
Bonhomme, Le, 40
Bonnin, Herr v., 260, 261
Bossier, L., 214
Boufflers, Chev. de, 188 ; Marq. de,
181
Bouille", Marq. de, 188, 189
Boulanger, Gl., 282 to 284
Boulay de la Meurthe, A. and H., 194
Bourbaki, Gl., 263
Bourbons, Catherine de, 152 ; D. de,
105 ; unpopular in Alsace, 120, 121
Bouxieres, chapter of, 187
Bouxwiller, 34
Boyer, Gl., 253
Brabant, duchy of, 145
Brachycephalic skulls, 144, 202
Breisach, Brisach, see Alt and Neuf
Brendel, Bp. of Strasburg, 110
Brignon affair, 285
Broglie, Ml. de, 107
Bruat, Adm., 39, 224
Brumath, 60, 213
INDEX
303
Bruno, Abp., 145, 146
Brunswick, D. of, 111
Burgundians, the, 63
Burgundy, D. of, see Charles the Rash
JULIUS, in Alsace, 57 et seq.
Callot, Jacques, 153
Calonne, C. A. de, 115
Canals in A.-L., 12, 13, 126
Canrobert, Ml., 234
Cantecroix, Beatrix de, 155
Capet, Beatrix, 145 ; Eudes, 67 ;
Hugh, 145, 146
Caracalla, Emp., 61
Carlos, K. of Naples, 168, 170
Carnot, Lazare, 190
Caron, Col., 123
Carrel, Armand, 121
Catherine the Great, 45
Catholic clergy in A.-L., 99, 103, 121,
126, 157, 160, 161, 186, 192, 277
Catholic League, 151
Cavaignac, Gl., 129, 195
Cazeaux, Abbe, 138, 206
Celts in A.-L., 56 et seq., 65, 66 213,
214
Ceryay documents, 229
Cernay, 43, 83
Chalons, battle, 64 ; camp, 196
Chambres de Reunion, 92, 93
Chamilly, Ct. de, 94 et seq., 102
Chanzy, Gl., 263
Chapters of noble ladies, 187
Charlemagne, his empire, 28, 46, 47,
65,66
Charles of Anjou, 147
Charles the Bald, Emp., 47, 66 ; the
Fat, 38, 67 ; IV, 74 ; V, 47, 48, 81,
149, 150, 151 ; VI, 87, 165, 167,
168, 171 ; VII, 176
Charles the Bold of Lorraine, 147 ;
the Great or III, 150, 151, 152, 157 ;
IV, 153, 154 et seq.; V, 156;
Cardinal, 82 ; Prince, 164, 167, 176
Charles the Rash of Burgundy, 46,
79, 80, 149
Charles the Simple of France, 67, 68,
144 ; X, 123, 124
Charles XII of Sweden, 168, 172.
Charles Edward, see Pretender
Charles Martel, 65
Chateauroux, Dss. de, 106, 159, 178
Chateau-Salins, 53, 54, 186, 223
Chateau vieux Switzers, 189
Chatelet, Mme. du, 182
Chatterers' Stone, 44
Cheese of Munster, etc., 20
Chevaux, grands, see Chivalry
Chivalry of Lorraine, 147, 181, 225,
226
Chnodomir, 62
Choiseul, D. de, 70
Choiseul-StainvUle, Ml. de, 107, 185
Cholera in Alsace, 130
Christina of Saxony, 182
Church Councils at Metz, 159, 160
Cities, free, see Free
Civilis, his rebellion, 59
Claude of Lorraine, 153, 154, 156
Clemenceau, George, 266
Clergy, see Catholic
Clothaire, 65
Clovis, 28, 64, 218
Coal in A.-L., 21, 44
Colmar, 17, 23, 38, 39, 40, 122, 247
Commercy, 163, 171
Conde, Louis II, Pr. de, 85, 91
Confederation, Rhenish, 71
Conrad I, K. of Germany, 68 ; the
Red, 145
Conradin (Conrad V), 72
Conscription in A.-L., 270, 271 ; in
France, 118
Constans II, Emp., 61, 62
Constant, Benj., 121
Constantia, Pr., 72
Constantino, Chlorus, 61 ; the Great,
61
Constitution of A.-L., 288, 289
Contades, Ml. de, 31, 107
Cosmo III of Tuscany, 168
Coucy, Enguerrand VII de, 76, 77 ;
castle, 76
Council of Alsace, 105. See Church
Coup d'Etat, Louis Napoleon's, 130,
131, 195
Court, see Sovereign
Cowell, H. J,, 275
304
INDEX
Crimes and penalties in Lorraine, 160,
161, 187
Crops in A.-L., 19, 20. See also
Scarcity
DALLWITZ, Dr. v., 288, 289
Daniel, William I as, 49, 50
Decapolis League, 74, 75
Decentius, 62
Decker, Gl. v., 238
Deimling, Gl. v., 290
Denfert-Rochereau, Col., 256, 257,
264
Deputies of A.-L. in '71, 264; at
Reichstag in '74, 277, 279
Derby, Earl of, 281
Deroulede, Paul, 282
Desaix, GL, 30
Dettingen, battle, 177
Dialects : Picard, 204 ; in Alsace,
208 et seq., 217, 218, 221; in
Lorraine, 204, 218, 219
Dietrich, Dominique, 92 et seq., 100,
103, 104, 299 ; Philippe de, Baron,
30,33,52,109,110,111
Dieuze, 53, 54, 176, 212
Disraeli, B., 5
Dolichocephalic skull, 144
Dolmen in the Vosges, 56
Domremy, 184
Dornach, 43
Douay, Gl. Abel, 231
Dubarry, Mme., 174
Ducrot, GL, 236
Dufour, GL, 133
Dupont de 1'Eure, 121
Dukes of Alsace, 67, 68 ; of Lorraine,
145, 146, 147. See also their
respective names
EDUCATION in A.-L., 157, 161, 180,
185, 221 to 223, 268, 273, 274, 280
Edict of Nantes, 99, 103
Edward III of England, 77
Eguisheim, 41, 55
Ehrenvest, see Ariovistua
Eleanor, Dss. of Lorraine, 164, 166
Elizabeth-Charlotte, Dss. of Lorraine,
157, 164 to 167, 171
Emigration, see Alsace-Lorraine
Emigres, French, 110, 112, 188
Empire, Holy Roman, dignities in,
170
Engelburg castle, 42
English invaders of A.-L., alleged,
75,76
Ensisheim, 39, 42, 91, 105
Epinal, 189
Erasmus, 74
Erckmann-Chatrian, 139, 140, 246
Ernsthausen, Prefect, 276
Erstein, 38, 259
Exelmans, Adm., 232
FABERT, Ml., 49
Faidherbe, GL, 263
Failly, GL de, 231, 232, 248
Falcandus quoted, 72
Favre, Jules, 130, 206, 228
Federation of the Rhine, 110. See
also Confederation
Fenestrange, 52, 212
Ferdinand II, Emp., 84 ; III, 83, 84,
85, 87, 90
Ferdinand Charles, Landgrave, 87, 88
Ferrette, 45, 46, 87 ; counts of, 77,
78, 147, 255
Ferry I of Bar and Lorraine, 145
Fleury, D. de, 174
Flourens, Leopold, 283, 284
Fontenoy village, 261
Forbach engagement, 232
Forbin-Janson, Bp., 192
Force, D. de La, 153
Forests, Alsatian, 15, 16
Forstner, Lieut., 287, 288
Fortresses by Vauban, 26, 51, 53, 102
Foy, GL, 121
France, Alsatian attachment to, 226 ;
building up of, 2 ; emigration from,
272, 273 ; in the Thirty Years' War,
82 et seq. ; material prosperity of,
134 to 136. See also French
Francis I of Lorraine, 150 ; II, 153 ;
III, 165, 166 et seq., 169, 170, 171
Francis Stephen, see Francis III
Francs-tireurs, 247, 248, 260, 262, 265
Franks, the, 64, 65, 67
INDEX
305
Frederick I (Barbarossa) Emp., 71,
88; 11,71
Frederick, Cr. Pr. of Prussia, 231, 234
Frederick Charles of Prussia, Pr., 234,
253, 260
Frederick William III of Prussia, 132 ;
IV, 132 et seq.
Free cities, 71, 74, 79, 98
Freemasons of A.-L., 276
French language in A.-L., 105, 106,
125, 140, 221 to 223, 274, 276
Frischmann, envoy, 93
Frossard, Gl., 62, 231, 232
Fruit in Alsace, 16
Fiirstenberg, F. E. v., Bp., 93, 101 ;
Wilhelm, Bp., 101
GALAIZI^RE, Chaumont de La, 174
to 180, 184
Gambetta, Leon, 141, 263, 264, 266
Garibaldi, 263
Gauzer, see Giinzer
Gavard, M., 281
George II of Grt.-Brit., 164, 176
Gerard of Alsace, 146
Germanicus, 59
Germans : their claims to A.-L., 138,
139, 205 ; their early invasions of
A.-L., 57 et seq., 214, 216, 218, 220,
221 ; their exactions, thefts, out-
rages, tyranny, etc., in A.-L., 259,
260, 261, 263, 290 ; their language
in A.-L., 105, 274 ; hated in A.-L.,
223, 226 ; their officials in A.-L.,
270, 275; planted in A.-L., 269
etseq., 275
Geroldseck, W. of, Bp., 72
Gladstone, W. E., 56
Glass-workers of Lorraine, 149
Goblet, Rene, 283
Goddess Reason, 112
Gordon, Mme., 125
Gratian, Emp., 62
Gravelotte battle, 234
Great Britain and Alsace (1814), 120 ;
and Belgium (1870), 5, 6 ; and war
of 1870-71, 4 to 8
Gregoire, Abbe, 190
Gregory IV, Pope, 66
Grosjean, J., 264, 265
Guebwiller, 14, 23 ? 42
Guises, the, 48, 151, 152, 225
Guizot, 126
Giinzer, 93, 96, 299
Gustavus Adolphus, 82
Gutenberg, 29, 240
HAGENBACH, P. v., 80
Haguenau, 32, 71, 111, 260
Hanau, Ct. of, 299
Hapsburgs and Alsace, 69, 77, 78, 86 ;
their lineage, 88, 89. See also
names of Emperors
Harcourt, Henri, Ct. d', 70
Hartmannsweiler Peak, 15, 43
Helvetus, 60
Henri II of France, 47, 160, 151 ;
III, 151, 152 ; IV, 152
Henry I (the Fowler), Emp., 68 ; IV,
68 ; VI, 69, 72
Herbette, M., 284
Hermann (Arminius), 59
Herrade, Abbess, 32
Hohenlohe, Pr. C. v., 289 ; Langen-
burg, 289
Hohenstaufens, the, 68, 72
Hohenburg Abbey, 32
Hohenzollern, John George of, 82
Honorius, Emp., 62
Horburg fight, 60, 247
Horn, Ct. Gustavus, 82, 83
Huck, Comt., 251
Hugh, D. of Alsace, 67, 144
Hugo, Gl. Sigisbert, and Victor, 224,
265, 266
Huningen (Huningue), 22
Huns, the, 63, 64, 145, 218
ILL, river, 11, 12
Illkirch, 97
Industries, modern, in A.-L., 18, 21,
22
Iron and other ores in A.-L., 21
Isabella, Dss. of Lorraine, 147, 148
Italy in '70, 230
JABLONOWSKA, Ctss., 181
Jacqueminot, Col., 193
306
INDEX
Jews in A.-L., 290; in Lorraine
formerly, 182 ; at Metz, 158, 159 ;
at Strasburg, 75
Joan of Arc, 53, 184, 197
Joan of Ferrette, 78
John, D. of Lorraine, 149
John Gaston de' Medici, 168, 170
John George of Hohenzollern, 82
Joseph II, Emp., 170
Josephine, Empress, 31, 111
Julian, Emp., 62
KEHL (Baden), 27, 92, 239, 242
Keller-Haas, deputy, 264, 265
Kerhor, Col. de, 248
Kestner, deputy, 131
Kiel Canal, 238
Kiepert, Heinrich, 205
Kitchener, Lord, 4
Klapperstein, the, 44
Kleber, Gl., 29, 43
Kcechlins, the, 22, 23, 115, 121
Kiiss, M., 254, 264
LAFAYETTE, Gl. de, 122, 123
Laloubere, Marq. de, 92
Lambertye, Marq. de, 164
Lambessa, 195, 196
Landau, 190
Landgraves of Alsace, 68, 69, 70
Landtag of A.-L., 288, 289
Landvogts of Alsace, 69, 70
Language in A.-L., 203 et seq., 212 et
seq.
Larevelliere-Lepeaux, 114
Latin language in A.-L., 213 to 218
Lauth, M., 276
Lavalette, Card, de, 84
Laveau, Jacobin, 112
Leagues : of Augsburg, 104 ; French
Catholic, 151 ; French League of
Patriots, 282, 285; Patriotic
League of Alsatian-Lorrainers, 272.
See also Confederation, Decapolis,
and Federation
Lebas, Joseph, 113
Lecourbe, Gl., 256
Leczinski, see Stanislas
Leczinska, Marie, Q. of France, 167,
183, 184
Lefebvre, Ml., 41
Le Flo, Gl., 281
Legrand, Major, 256
Leo IX, Pope, 41
Leopold I, Emp., 86, 98, 156, 165 ;
II, 170
Leopold of Austria, Landgrave of
Alsace, 77
Leopold, D. of Lorraine, 156, 157,
158, 163, 164
Leopold William of Austria, Bp. of
Strasburg, 88, 89, 93
"Lettres Portugaises," 94
Lezay-Marnezia, M. de, 119, 120
Lichtenberg, John of, Bp., 69
Liege, duchy of, 145
Lion of Belfort, 258
L'Isle, see Rouget
Live stock in A.-L., 20
Livingstone, Dr., 282
Lix, Antoinette, 247
Lobau, Ml., 193
Lomenie de Brienne, 187
Longwy, 154, 156, 163 ; siege in '70,
249, 250
Lorraine : its name, 47 ; kingdom of,
10, 66, 67, 143, 144 ; duchy of, 145,
146, 150 ; Lower, 146 ; geographi-
cally, 10, 11, 18, 203; old-time
economic conditions in, 156, 162 ;
assimilated to France, 157 ; bar-
tered for Tuscany, 169 ; ducal
revenues in, 167, 174; accession
of Stanislas in, 172 ; united to
France, 184, 185. See also Army,
Chivalry, Crimes, Dialects, Manu-
factures, Nobility, Population,
Potatoes, Republicanism, Revo-
lution, Rivers, Scarcity, Sovereign
Court, Taxation, Witches
Lorrainers, physically, 202 ; famous,
224 et seq. ; attached to their
dukes, 165, 166, 171; penalized
for joining the French Army, 262
Lothair I, Emp. of the West, 47, 66
Lothair II, King of Lotharingia, 47,
66, 143, 144
INDEX
307
Louis I (le Debonnaire), Emp., 66 ;
(the Germanic), 47, 66, 67, 143,
144 ; IV (the Child), 67
Louis XI of France, 79 ; XIII, 153 ;
XIV, 40, 70, 84, 85, 87, 88, 97, 99,
101, 103, 104, 105, 155, 156, 162 ;
XV, 115, 159, 167, 170, 171, 174,
178, 181 ; XVI, 107, 108, 111, 188
Louis Philippe, K. of the French, 124,
125, 128, 193, 194
Louis of Anjou, 148
Louis, Card, and D. of Bar, 147
Louis, Baron, 193, 194
Louvois, Marq. de, 94 to 97, 100, 101,
297 et seq.
Luckner, ML, 31
Ludres, Ctss. de, 155
Ludwig, see Louis
Luneville, 163, 173, 181, 182, 186, 269
Luxemburg, duchy, 7
MACMAHON, Ml. de, 195, 231, 232,
234 to 236, 255, 281
Maintenon, Mme. de, 103
Maizieres, 50
Man, prehistoric, in Alsace, 55, 56
Mancini, Hortense, 70, 87 ; Marie,
156
Mansfeld, Ct., 82
Manteuflel, Ml. v., 289
Manuel, E., 121
Manufactures in A.-L., 21 et seq., 43,
44, 50, 51, 53, 54; in Lorraine
formerly, 162, 186i
Marechal, M., 254
Maria Theresa, Empress, 87, 168, 170,
176, 177
Marie, heiress of Burgundy, 80
Marie Antoinette, Q., 107, 115, 170
Marie Josephe, Dauphiness, 107, 115
Marmoutier, 34
" Marseillaise," the, 30, 31
Masseraux, 45
Maximianus Hercules, Emp., 61
Maximilian I, Emp., 80
Maximilian of Mexico, 132
Maximinus, Emp., 61
Mazarin, Card., 70, 87, 88 ; Duke, 70
Mazeppa, 172
Medici, last of the, 170
Menzel the Pandour, 106, 177
Mercie, A., 258
Mercy, Ct., 85
Merovius, 64
Mertens, Gl. v., 238
Metternich, Prince, 126
Metz, 46, 149 to 151, 159, 177, 178,
185, 187, 190, 213, 218, 223;
Jews at, 158, 159 ; patois of, 218,
219; siege of, in 1552, 48; in
1870, 235, 237, 252 et seq.
Mezieres, 151
Minstrels and musicians, 40
Mirecourt, 191
Moeller, Dr. v., 276
Molsheim, 35
Moltke, Ct. v., 206
Monet, Jacobin, 112 to 114
Montbeliard, Counts of, 147
Montclar, Gl. de, 92, 94, 101, 297 et
seq.
Montecuculli, 91
Montmedy, 250
Montpensier, Mile, de, 156
Morsbronn, 232
Moselle, the, 12, 18
Mudra, Gl. v., 290
Mulhouse, 22, 23, 43 to 45, 74, 75,
86, 115, 118, 119, 124, 247 ; united
to France, 114 et seq.
Munster in Alsace, 20, 41
Munster in Westphalia, 85 ; see also
Treaties
Murbach Abbey, 42
NABEET, Prof., 205
Names, see Place
Nancy, 149, 154, 162, 180, 185, 186,
188, 213 ; during war of 1870, 233,
260, 269
Nantes, edict of, 99, 103, 158, 161
Napoleon I, 118, 119, 120, 129, 137,
159, 169, 190, 191 ; III, 3 to 8,
124, 125, 129 et seq., 132, 134, 137,
195, 196, 228 to 231, 233, 235, 236
Napoleon Jerome, Pr., 137
Nationalities, principle of, 1 et seq., 1
Neuf-Brisach, 41, 105, 121, 248
308
INDEX
Neufchateau (Vosges), 189
Neufchatel (Switzerland), 132 to 134
Ney, Ml., 49, 191, 192
Nicholas, D. of Lorraine, 149
Nicholas Francis, Card., D. of Lor-
raine, 153, 154, 156
Nicole, Dss. of Lorraine, 152 to 155
Niederbronn, 52
Nimeguen, see Treaties
Nobility fees in Lorraine, 163. See
also Chivalry
Nardlingen, 83, 85
OBBRLIN, J. F., pastor, 35, 36 ; J. J.,
scholar, 35, 210
Ochsenfeld, 17, 66, 83
Old Regime in France, 107, 174, 185
Opalinska, Catherine, 173, 177, 183
Option, see Alsace-Lorraine, emi-
gration
Orbey, 40, 209
Orl6ans, Gaston, D. of, 153 ; Philip I,
D. of, 166
Osnabrflck, 85, 86
Ossolinska, Dss., 185
Otto I (the Great), Emp., 145;
11,47
Otton, Dr. Mark, 90
PAGANS' Walls, 37, 56
Pajol, Gl., 235, 236
Pajot, Marianne, 155
Palatine, Princess, 166
Palikao, Gl. Ct. de, 235
Palissot de Montenoy, 182
Pandours, 106, 177
Pan-Germanists, 142, 143
Paris libelled, 138, 139 ; fall of, 263
Parlements of Metz, Nancy, etc., 185,
187
Pasteur, L., 225
Peace of 1871, 9, 264 to 266
Pelle, GL, 231
Pepin the Short, K., 65
Persigny, D. de, 125
Petennann, Herr, 205
Petite- Pierre, La, 53, 233
Pnster, C., on language in A.-L., 207
etseq.
Phalsbourg, 53, 190 ; siege of, in 1870,
232, 233, 246
Philip I of Swabia, Emp., 71
Philip IV, of Spain, 87
Pius VII, Pope, 119 ; IX, 278
Place-names in A.-L., 60, 212 et seq.,
219, 220, 293 to 296
Plague, the black, 75
Plebiscitum impossible in A.-L., 271
to 273
Plombieres, 180
Plunder, German, 259
Poland, 126, 167, 168, 169
Pont-a-Mousson university, 157, 180,
185
Population of A.-L., 9, 271, 274, 290 ;
of Lorraine in old times, 156, 162,
185
Posthumus, Emp., 61
Potatoes in Lorraine, 164
Pouget, M., deputy, 279
Poultroie, La, 40, 60
Poussay Abbey, 155, 187
Pouyer-Quertier, 269
Prehistoric man, see Man
Pretender, the young, 163, 181
Prisons, new German, in A.-L., 276
Probus, Emp., 61
Pron, Baron, 241
Protest of A.-L. against German
annexation, 264 et seq.
Protestants in Alsace, 81, 82, 84, 86,
93, 99, 100, 103, 105, 108, 119, 121
Prussia, in relation to Belgium, 5 to
7; claims Alsace (1814), 120;
annexes Sarre valley, 191 ; seizes
German States, 196 ; her claims on
Neufchatel, 132 et seq.
Prussianism, growth of, 239
Public Safety Law, French, 195
Pultava battle, 172
QUINET, E., 265, 266
RACE and Language, 203 et seq.
Raess, Bp. of Strasburg, 277 to 280
Railways in A.-L., 13, 14 ; first ones
in Alsace, 126
Rambervillers, 220, 258
INDEX
309
Rapp, Gl. Ct., 39
Rastadt, see Treaties
Rebellions in Alsace, 33, 34, 80, 81
Reformation in Alsace, 81
R6gnier, 253
Reichstag, German, 267 et seq., 277
to 280, 288
Reinach, Comt. de, 247, 248
Remiremont Abbey, 187, 220
Renard, Ct., 260, 261
Rend I (the "good king"), D. of
Lorraine, 147 to 149 ; II, 149, 180,
184
Republic, second French, 128 to 130
Republicanism in Lorraine, 195
Reuter, Col. v., 286, 287
Revenues of A.-L., 289, 290 ; ducal,
in Lorraine, 167, 174
Revolution, first French, in Alsace,
108 et seq. ; in Lorraine, 188 et seq. ;
of 1848, 128
Revolutionary Tribunal at Strasburg,
112, 113 ; at Mirecourt, 191 ; in
Paris, 111, 112, 113
Rewbell, J. F., 109, 114
Rhine, the, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18;
Roman fortresses on, 60
Ribeaupierre, lords of, 40
Ribeauville, 40
Ricardis, Empress, 38
Richard Coeur de Lion, 32, 69
Richelieu, Card., 82 to 84, 153, 154
Rigny, Adm. de, 224
Rivers of Alsace, 11, 12, 15; of
Lorraine, 18
Roads, Roman, in Alsace, 60
Robert, D. of Bar, 147
Robertsau, 259
Robespierre, 113
Robber knights, 70
Rochambeau, Ml. Ct. de, 107
Roche, see Ban
Roedern, Ct. v., 288, 289
Rohan, Cardinals de, 34, 106, 110
Romans in Alsace, 56 et seq. ; their
forts and roads, 60
Roudolphi, M. E., 272, 290
Rouffach, 41
Rouget de 1'Isle, 30, 31
Rougemont, 59
Rudolph of Hapsburg, 72 to 74
Ruffacb, 41
Russia opposes Prussian demand for
Alsace (1814), 120; supports
France against Bismarck (1875),
282
Rustauds, their rebellion, 33, 34, 81
SAINT-DIE, 180, 185, 269
Saint- Just, L. de, 113
Saint-Louis, 147
Saint Odilia, 36, 37
Saint-Privat, 234
Saint-Simon, D. de, 95
Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines, 221
Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, 209, 221
Salt in A.-L., 20, 21, 186
Sans-Gene, Mme., 41
Sarre river, and its valley, 11, 12, 18,
191, 193, 194, 212, 269
Sarrealben, 51
Sarrebourg, 51
Sarrebruck, 51, 231
Sarreguemines, 51
Sarrelouis, 51, 156, 190 to 193
Sarreunion, 52
Saverae, 33, 34, 60, 81, 83, 215;
affair at, 286 et seq.
Saxe, Ml., 29, 107
Saxe- Weimar, Bernard of, 83
Scarcity in Alsace, 115, 116, 120, 127 ;
in Lorraine, 175, 176, 178, 179
Schad, Lieut., 286, 287
Scheffer, Ary and Henry, 122
Schlestadt, 38 ; siege in '70, 247
Schmeling, Gl. v., 247, 248
Schnaebele affair, 283
Schneider, Eulogius, 110, 112, 113
Schools in A.-L., see Education
Schwabs, 98
Schwoerbrief Constitution, 73
Seasons, bad, see Scarcity
Second French Empire founded, 130
et seq.
Sedan battle, 8, 235, 236
Seille, river, 18
Seltz, 60, 213
Sicily, Germans in, 72
310
INDEX
Sieges in 1870-71, see Belfort, Bitche,
Longwy, Metz, Montm6dy, Neuf-
Brisach, Phalsbourg, Schlestadt,
Strasburg, Thionville, Toul
Sigismund of Hapsburg, Landgrave,
79,80
Sigismund Francis, Archduke, 88
Smalkalde League, 81
Sophia of Bar, 147
Soultz, 41
Sovereign Court of Lorraine, 154, 179,
185
Speckle, D., 102
Spicheren. the, 52
Stanislas, King, D. of Lorraine, 167,
168, 169, 172 et seq. ; his benefac-
tions, 180; his mistresses and Court',
181 ; his tragic death, 183, 184
Stanley, Sir H. M., 282
States General, of 1780, 108, 188
Stephany on the Germans in A.-L.,
285, 286
Stilicho, 62, 63
Stipulations of Strasburg' s union
with France, 297 et seq.
Storks in Alsace, 226
Strasburg, 25 to 32, 59, 60, 71 et seq.,
75, 93, 126, 128, 190, 216 ; battle
of, 62 ; bishops of, 69, 72, 81, 82,
86, 88, 89, 93, 105, 106 ; cathedral
of, 27, 28, 240, 241, 298 ; church
of St. Thomas at, 29 ; constitution
of, 73, 74, 109 ; library of, 32, 240 ;
siege of (1870), 233, 237 et seq.,
244, 245, 268 ; united to France,
91 et seq., 97, 99, 100, 297 et seq. ;
university of, 27, 31, 32, 222, 225,
273, 274, 280
Swabians, the, 57
Swedes in Alsace, 82 to 85
Swentibold, 67, 144
Switzerland and the Swiss, 11, 44,
46, 75, 80, 89, 114, 115, 133, 134,
189, 241, 257
TAILLANT, Com., 246, 247
Tastu, Mme., 30, 31
Taxation in Alsace, 108 ; in Lorraine
and Bar, 162, 175, 176, 179, 184
Tessier, Col., 248, 249
Teutsch, M., deputy, 278
Textiles in A.-L., 22 to 24
Thann, 42, 43
Thiers, Adolphe, 141, 206, 208, 252,
258, 269
Thionville, 50, 51, 204, 212 ; siege in
'70, 250, 254
Thirty Years' War, 82 et seq.
Thouvenel, M., 193
Three Bishoprics, see Bishoprics
Tiberius, Emp., 59
Tobacco in A.-L., 18, 19, 119, 259
Tolbiac battle, 64
Toul, 47, 149 to 151, 160 ; siege in
'70, 251, 252
Treaties : Augsburg, 81, 86 ; Mersen,
67 ; Munster, see Westphalia ;
Nimeguen, 86, 92, 297; Osna-
bruck, 86; Passau, 86; the
Pyrenees, 87, 154, 156; Rastadt,
86; Ratisbon (truce), 103; Rys-
wick, 86, 87, 104, 105, 156;
Verdun, 66 ; Westphalia (Munster),
85 et seq., 151, 154, 297
Treves, Archbps. of, 146, 159
Treskow, Gl. v., 257
Tribocci Germans, 57, 59, 214
Turenne, Ml., 39, 85, 86, 91
Turkheim, 86, 91
Tuscany, 88, 168 to 170
UHBICH, Gl., 237 et seq.
Urban VIII, Pope, 155
VALENTIN, Edmond, 131, 241 to 243,
245
Valentinian I, Emp., 62, 63
Vandals, the, 62, 63
Vauban, Ml., 26, 51, 53, 102
Vaudrey, Col., 125
Veldence or Veldenz, Palatin de, 299,
300
Verdun, 47, 66, 146, 149 to 151, 186 ;
siege in '70, 250, 251
Victoria, Queen, 3, 4
Villars, Ml., 104
Vineyards, in A.-L., 16 to 19
Visigoths, the, 63, 64
INDEX
311
Voltaire, 182
Vosges mountains,
volunteers, 189
10, 14, 15 ;
WAGNER, Wolf, 224
Waldersbach, Gl. de, 250
Waldreda, 144
Walewski, Ct,, 134, 137
Wallenstein, 84
Wars : Augsburg, 104 ; Austrian
succession, 106, 159, 176; Polish
succession, 168 ; Spanish succes-
sion, 104 ; Seven Years', 178 ;
Thirty Years', 82 et seq. ; Revolu-
tionary, 109, 111, 113 ; Napoleonic,
120; Franco-German (1870-71),
4, 5 et seq., 50, 52, 53, 85, 140, 141,
228 to 266
War scares (1875-87), 281 et seq.
Wasselonne, 35
Wedel, Ct. v., 287, 288
Welsch villages in A.-L., 209 et seq.
Werder, Gl. v., 237 et seq., 240 to 242,
244
Wesserling, 43
William I., Germ. Emp., 132, 262;
II, 49, 58
William of Orange, 104, 300
Wimpffen, Gl. de, 236
Wines of Alsace, 17, 40
Wissembourg, 32, 33, 111 ; battle,
231
Witches in Lorraine, 161
Worth, battle, 33, 231, 232 ; counts
of, 68, 69
Wurmser, Ml., Ill, 224
YOUNG, Arthur, 176
ZABERN, see Saverne
" Zadig," Voltaire's, 182
Zones of Alsace, 14 et seq.
Zorn-Bulach, v., 287, 288
Zwei-Briicken, D. of, 40
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